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LITTLE PILLS 



AN ARMY STORY 

BY 

R. H. McKAY 

Formerly Aciiog Atsiitant Sarteon United Sutet Army 



Being Some Experiences of a United States Army 

Medical Officer on the Frontier Nearly 

A Half Century Ago 







1918 

PUBLISHED BY 
PITTSBURG HEADLIGHT 

riTTSBURG, KANSAS 



APR -9 IS 



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FOREWORD 

BY R. H. McKAY 

This little skerch of army life on the frontier was first 
written, merely for the pleasure it might bring to my 
children in looking it over in after years. It remained in 
the form of a manuscript for that purpose, until some of 
my friends urged its publication. The merit of the story 
itself, if it has any, lies in the fact of actual experience, 
but probably a matter of more importance is to call 
attention to the wonderful changes ••hat have taken place 
in the fifty years just passed. The term frontier today 
would be a misnomer. There is no frontier. The im- 
mense areas of wild and waste country that then existed 
has vanished before the tide of civilization and settlement. 
The present generation can never realize the vast changes. 
Possibly this little book may bring to mind, by way of 
contrast, at least some of the conditions then and now. 



LITTLE PILLS 



CHAPTER I. 

My children have often asked me to write out some of my 
experience while a medical officer in the United States Army on 
the frontier, and I have often resolved to do so. But for many 
years after leaving the service my time was so thoroughly taken 
up in an effort to make a living and educate the children that my 
good resolutions received scant attention. Now in my 78th year 
the apathy of old age is such a handicap, that great effort is re- 
quired to do things that at one time I could have done cheerfully 
but did not. 

I think my experiences during the Civil War gave me some- 
thing of a taste for military duty, for when in the summer or 
early fall of 1868 I noticed that an Army Medical Board was in 
session at New York, I at once made application to appear before 
it for examination for a position in the regular service. I was 
examined in October, 1868, and as thei board continued in session 
for some time afterwards I waited with some anxiety and mis- 
givings as to the result of my examination. I had the impression 
that the examination would be severe and was doubtful of my 
ability to pass. In this connection it is proper to say that some 
had failed in these examinations that afterwards became noted 
medical men. Among them, I was informed, was Dr. Austin 
Flint, Sr., whose work on the practice of medicine was standard 
and considered the best when I was a student. His son, Dr. 
Austin Flint, Jr., also became famous as our great Physiologist 
and his work on that subject is standard today. It was not until 
the following January that I heard from my examination, and 
was then directed to report at St. Louis to be mustered into the 
service as Acting Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army. 
There was necessarily some delay in disposing of the few things 
we had, some of which we sold and some of which we stored. 



8 LITTLE PILLS 

Finally everything being- disposed of, we left our home in Wash- 
ington, Iowa, and from there, after a day with friends, took a 
train for Burlington, thence to Keokuk, where my wife remained 
visiting relatives, I going on to St. Louis to report. 

I was mustered into the service January 29th, 1869, and 
ordered to report to the Medical Director, Department of the 
Missouri at Leavenworth, Kansas, for assignment to duty. The 
Department of the Missouri at the time comprised the States of 
Missouri, Kansas, Olorado, New Mexico, The Indian Territory, 
and I think Arkansas. 

General Sheridan was the commanding officer of the depart- 
ment at that time. He also had a brother who was a captain and 
who was also stationed at Leavenworth. Dr. Miles was the 
Medical Director of the Department and Dr. McGruder was Post 
Surgeon at Leavenworth. I was on .waiting orders at Fort 
Leavenworth for something over a month during which time I 
got my first impression of the rank and file of the Regular Army. 
The officers impressed me as very self important, exceedingly 
courteous and cordial, and charming in their broad-gauge views 
of current events and their unreserved candor in discussing all 
subjects. I must except one subject, however, and that was 
politics. An army officer is supposed to have no politics, or if 
he has he keeps them in reserve. Seldom during nearly seven 
years of my hfe in the army did I hear politics mentioned. An 
army officer is supposed to do his duty regardless of who holds 
political authority over him, and this he does most loyally. The 
enlisted men impressed me as a clean, attractive and well dis- 
ciplined body of soldiers. Another thing that impressed me was 
the absolute separation of the officers and enlisted men. It may 
be different now but at that time there seemed to be nothing of 
even a fraternal interest. The officer commanded and the soldier 
obeyed. In this way they seemed as distinct as oil and water, and 
it was a rather surprising contrast to the volunteer service during 
the war, where enlisted men and officers often from the same 
town and nearly always from the same community fraternized 
and often addressed each other by their given names; while in 
the regular service there was nothing of the kind. An officer 



LITTLE PILLS 9 

when passing- an enlisted man always received a salute. The men 
or man standing at attention when giving it and the officer was 
required to return the salute. The men may be sitting down, say 
outside of their barracks, and when an officer approaches and 
gets within a certain distance they all rise at once, stand at 
attention, and give the salute, and this is the extent of their 
relations with each other. 

The officers mess at Leavenworth was quite a large one, 
mostly of unmarried men, although there were maybe two or 
three married couples, and was exceedingly cordial and sociable 
with each other. Those of the rank of Captain or higher up in 
ranlv were always addressed by their military title of Captain or 
Major, as it might be, but the Lieutenants were addressed as 
Mister, or by their surnames, as Mr. Jones or simply Jones. 

The first of March came and with it came pay-day, a matter 
that seemed of much interest to the officers. It did not take 
me long to learn its importance for army officers at that time as 
a rule literally lived up their salaries. I finally learned that an 
officer was considered by many other officers as a little off color 
if he was close-fisted and tried to save money out of his pay. To 
me it was a matter of importance because I was poor and needed 
it. I sent most of my first month's pay, after paying mess bill 
and a few other necessary expenses, to my wife, not keeping 
enough, as I afterward learned, for an emergency that might 
arise. Expecting to be ordered to some frontier jKJst, I took the 
precaution to invest in a pistol, a very ridiculous thing to do, as 
I now think of it. The further history of that pistol will appear 
later on in this story. 

While at Leavenworth the officers gave a hop. I never knew 
why it was called a hop instead of a dance, but it was always so 
designated in the army. Officers came from other places, par- 
ticularly Fort Riley, among whom was General Custer of cavalry 
fame during the Civil War, and a noted Indian fighter on the 
frontier. I watched him with a good deal of interest, for at that 
time he was a distinguished man in the service, and I must say 
that I was rather disappointed in his appearance. He seemed 
to me to be under-sized and slender, and at first blush to be 



10 LITTLE PILLS 

effeminate in appearance. Maybe his long hair, almost reaching 
to his shoulders, gave this impression, but the face was something 
of a study and hard to describe. Something of boldness or maybe 
dash, a quick eye, and he was intensely energetic, giving the 
impression that he would be a veritable whirlwind in an engage- 
ment. He did not convey the idea of a great character. He was 
a very graceful dancer. His career ended at the famous battle 
in our Indian warfare, that of the Little Big Horn. Not a man of 
his command escaped to tell the story. 

I think it was about the 8th or 9th of March that I received 
orders to report to the Chief Medical Officer, District of New 
Mexico, for assignment to duty. The quartermaster furnished 
transportation, that is to say, orders to the transportation com- 
panies, railroads, stage-lines, etc., to carry the officer to point of 
destination. This, together with the order of assignment to 
duty, would carry one wherever the assignment directed. At 
this time the so-called Kansas-Pacific railroad was built out 
pretty well towards the west line of the state, but there were no 
transcontinental lines finished until the following summer. The 
Union and Central Pacifies joining that year in Utah in July. 

I left Fort Leavenworth in the morning and before night 
was out on the plains. From Leavenworth to Topeka there was 
some settlement. The towns as I remember them were mere 
railroad stations, except Lawrence, which was more pretentious, 
and the scattering farmhouses were small and primitive in style. 
Topeka seemed to be something of a town, but from there west 
the country was only partially inhabited. Fort Hayes stood out 
prominently to the left of the railroad but the whole country 
seemed one great sea of desolation unlimited in extent. At that 
time I would not have given ten dollars per square league for 
what has since become one of the famous wheat fields of the 
country. The evening of the second day we arrived at a place 
called Sheridan which was the terminus of the railroad. It was 
a straggling place of tents and wooden shacks, dance halls, bawdy 
houses, gambling houses and saloons. Murders were of frequent 
occurrence and it was considered dangerous to be on the street 
at night. There was only one street in the town. I started out 



LITTLE PILLS 11 

onthis street about dusk, thinking I had better go to the stage 
office and arrange for my transportation on to Santa Fe. The 
landlord happened to notice me and called for me to wait a 
minute and when he had joined me he inquired where I was going. 
He said he would go with me as it might not be safe for me to be 
alone, and told me of a killing in front of the hotel the night 
before. 

My bed that night was on the second story, merely floored, 
and not plastered or sealed, and the roof slanted down close to the 
bed. The space between the floor and the edge of the roof was 
open and I could look down into the saloon. I watched the pat- 
rons of this place for some time for it was altogether a new 
experience. The clinking of glasses; the loud talk: the dim 
lights; and the thorough abandonment of the motley crowd re- 
mains quite vividly in my memory. It finally occurred to me 
that in the event of a shooting scrape, even there in bed was not 
a very safe place, so I edged over to the far side of the bed and 
soon dropped to sleep, not waking until called in the morning. 

We got an early start and I had the stage mostly to myself 
until we crossed the Raton spur of the mountain. The nights 
were chilly and I was not over-warmly clad, but I managed after 
the first night to get a fair amount of sleep. I felt some fear of 
Indians although it was tod early in the season for them to go on 
the war-path. The summer before had been a particularly bad 
one on the plains. Forsythe's command was almost annihilated 
in October, 1868, on the Ariskaree Fork of the Republican river, 
and at every stage station until after we reached Trinidad, Colo., 
the first salutation between the men at the station and our con- 
ductor was whether either had seen any Indians. The apprehen- 
sion was not that the Indians would go on the war-path at that 
time of the year, because their ponies could not exist until the 
grass was well started, but that some of the venturesome young 
bucks might take it into their heads to attack the stage coach. 
I peeked out of the coach at night and wondered if there was any 
probability of Indians attacking us and thought of my pistol, but 
was not proud of it, or of my ability to use it. 

The stage stations were interesting to me. On the plains 



12 LITTLE PILLS 

proper they were uniformly built, underground as far up as the 
sidewalls extended, and was located near some water hole and at 
an elevation that would command a view of the surrounding 
country for some distance. Above the dirt walls large logs were 
laid, upon which the cross timbers were placed for supporting 
the roof. These logs were raised from the ground enough, say 
three or four inches, to give the occupants a good view of the 
surrounding country, and an opportunity of using their carbines 
against attack from the Indians, with comparative safety to 
themselves. The roof was covered with dirt. The stables were 
built the same way with underground passages or open ditches 
connected with the station proper. Both station and stable were 
connected in the same way with the water hole. At these stations 
on the plains proper, were stationed a small squad of soldiers, 
maybe a half dozen, under the command of a noncommissioned 
officer, generally a sergeant, and you can readily see that the 
Indians would be a little cautious about getting too near such a 
place although during the summer season they often attacked 
the stage between stations. The stations were at variable dist- 
ances apart, depending on the water supply, generally from eight 
to twenty miles apart, and were supplied by government trains 
on their way to the military posts of the West. There was not 
much to attract attention, in approaching these stations, no build- 
ing in sight, no sign of life. The first thing you knew some 
one would hollow "Hello!" and "Hello!" would come back. "Have 
you seen any Indians?" and there you are. The last inquiry 
was natural enough when you consider the near approach of 
spring, when the grass would be green enough to furnish feed 
for Indian ponies. Indians would not appear in large numbers 
at this time of the year, but little roving bands, maybe one or 
two venturesome bucks might be seen almost daily at a safe 
distance, evidently spying out the prospects for more serious 
work later in the season. Of course we got our meals at these 
stations, consisting generally of bacon, hot corn-bread or biscuit, 
a vegetable or two, and black coffee. This menus varied some 
after we crossed the Raton Mountains and were practically out 



LITTLE PILLS 13 

of Indian troubles, when we had a greater variety, and it was 
better prepared. 

We got to Trinidad late at night, the first town after cross- 
ing the plains, and located just at the base on the north side of 
the Raton Range near the Purgatory river. This was a mining 
town of some importance in those days, and had the usual quota 
of dance halls, gambling dens and other equipment of a typical 
mining town. 

We got to Dick Wooton's early the following morning and 
had a good breakfast. His place was located near the top of 
Raton Pass and consisted at that time of a rambling lot of log 
buildings; one for a house proper, which was clean, comfortable, 
and attractive inside, and the others for stables, blacksmith and 
wagon shops, and in fact anything and everything where repairs 
to transportation could be made. Dick himself was an attractive 
personality, was large, quite above the average in sibe, with a 
cheery open i face giving little evidence of the frontier man, and 
yet he was almost as noted as Kit Carson with whom he was 
associated as pioneer and scout. Both were noted men on the 
frontier. Wooton, however, took a more practical view of life 
than Carson and conceived the idea of building a wagon road 
over the Raton Pass. This- road was completed and I think had 
been for some time before I crossed the pass. If I remember 
correctly we crossed a little stream coming down from near the 
top of the range thirteen times before we came to the top of the 
pass. Wooton had some kind of permit or authority from the 
government for building this read and was authorized to make it 
a toll road. He was reported to have made quite a fortune from 
the revenue derived from it. 

A little place called Cimarron, (which in Spanish means 
mountain of sheep) or Maxwell's ranch was the next place of 
interest to me. This is some distance south of the Raton Range, 
maybe half way from Trinidad to Fort Union. It seemed that 
Maxwell mamed a high class Spanish woman whose family owned 
an immense estate in what was Mexico before it was ceded to the 
United States. In the division of the estate Maxwell's wife got a 
grant of many thousands of acres on the head waters of the 



14 LITTLE PILLS 

Cimarron, a tributary of the Canadian, which I understand was 
very much reduced as a result of extended litigation with the 
government as to title. We traveled for miles on what was then 
called Maxwell's Ranch, where great herds of sheep, cattle and 
horses were to be seen, with an adobe house here and there, 
where herders lived. It was a great pleasure to stop even for one 
meal at such a place as Maxwell's. The house was commodious 
and hndsomely furnished and everything was prosperous and 
home-like. Some years later I had the pleasure of acquaintance 
of a daughter of Mr. Maxwell's who married al ieutenant in the 
army and we were serving at the same post. 

We passed Fort Union in the night and I did not get to see 
much of it, I but I understand it to be only a military post and 
base of supplies, for the Quarter-Master or Commissary De- 
partment of the army for the District of New Mexico. 

My first view of Las Vegas (The Meadows, in Spanish) was 
over a beautiful wide valley, some three or four miles across, 
through which a pretty little stream of water, the source of the 
Pecos, river, was wending its way. The view was beautiful and 
the town looked to be a place of importance, but proved to be 
disappointing on a closer acquaintance. 

Not far from Las Vegas we passed what was called the old 
Pecos church. It was only a little distance from the road and 
said to have been built in the seventeenth century. It stood 
alone in its desolation and had partially fallen into decay. The 
room was off, the wall^ partly broken down and it looked to be as 
old as reported. 

We arrived in Santa Fe late in the evening and stopped at the 
hotel or fonda, as it is called in Spanish. At first one feels 
that he is in a different country; something foreign and out of 
the usual, and this feeling grows with closer acquaintance. For 
instance you go direct from the street to your room if your wife 
is with you, or to a kind of a lobby or sitting room with a bar 
at one side if alone. 

I was thankful that the stage ride was ended. We had been 
going night and day since leaving the railroad at Sheridan, Kans., 
a distance of nearly four hundred miles, and although I had the 



LITTLE PILLS 15 

stage to myself most of the way, one passenger got on at Cimar- 
ron that I will feel grateful to the balance of my days, and from 
Fort Union to Santa Fe the coach was crowded all the way. The 
stage lines in those days had a conductor who went to the end of 
the route, much as our railroad conductors do today, while the 
drivers like our engineers, only went to what might be called 
division points, say twelve-hour trips. 

The conductor has charge, and is responsible for the United 
States mail and the express packages which are carried in what 
is called the front boot, and where the conductor curls up among 
the mail sacks and packages and sleeps at night. The back boot 
is devoted to baggage. Inside there are generally two seats 
facing each other and wide enough for three persons If not too 
big, on each seat. The stage coach had a great swinging body 
resting on two immense leather straps for springs, one on each 
side underneath and extending from front to back. These flex- 
ible springs gave the coach an easy side swing and it was not a 
particularly unpleasant thing to ride in. 

Having arrived in Santa Fe late Saturday evening I did not 
report until next morning, and about noon an orderly brought to 
the hotel my orders from the Chief Medical officer directing me 
to report to the commanding officer at Fort Selden, New Mex., 
for assignment to duty. This was startling news, for Fort Selden 
was the last military post before reaching the Mexican border 
and I had only $2.50 in my pocket and my hotel bill to pay. 
Being new in the service and, something of a tenderfoot I did not 
want to go to the other officers for help. I left my room and 
went down to the hotel lobby and among others who were there 
was the gentleman who got on the stage at Cimarron. We had 
traveled together from Cimarron to Santa Fe with hardly the 
exchange of the usual courtesies. I was not a good mixer and he 
had nothing to say, but my case was very desperate. I had to 
talk to someone so I asked if he was acquainted in Santa Fe and 
he said "some." I told him my troubles and that I had a good 
watch and a good pistol (that pistol was a hoodoo by this time) 
that I would put up as security for a few dollars to pay my ex- 
penses on the way to Fort Selden. He said : "Well, nobody would 



16 LITTLE PILLS 

give you anything for them things. If I had the money I would 
let you have it." This in a rather slow drowning voice. I took 
this as a matter of course. Anybody would talk the same way, 
I thought, whether they had it or not. 

Dinner was soon ready. The dining room was away to the 
rear end of this somewhat rambhng hotel building. We passed 
through a bilhard hall and maybe some store rooms before reach- 
ing it. I think, however, there was a different route for the 
ladies. I suppose the dinner was good but do not remember 
much about it. I do remember, however, on the way back 
through the pool hall I stopped to glance around the room which 
was a very long one with many tables and many players. The 
second table away became very interesting to me for near it 
stood my man of short acquaintance apparently talking to one of 
the players, a large fine looking man who, laying his cue across 
the corner of the table, pulled out such a wad of bills as I had 
never seen before and commenced counting out the money to my 
newly made acquaintance. I passed and went up to my room 
wondering if he would keep his word, now that he had the money. 
I tried to read but made poor headway. Pretty soon there was 
a light tap on the door and I said "come in." The door opened 
and there was my new found friend who took a seat in a rather 
deliberate way and said nothing. I made some remark about 
the weather which seemed to meet his approval but directly he 
asked me : "About how much money do you think you will need ?" 
I told him I thought about twenty dollars would be enough. He 
brought from his pocket a great bunch of bank notes and counted 
out twenty dollars and handed it to me. When I offered my 
security he politely turned them down saying he would take 
chances. When I asked him if he had never lost money that 
way he replied, "Yes, some." And when I said I would feel better 
myself if he would take something to make himself safe he said, 
"Oh no, I'll take chances." When next I inquired about his 
knowledge of Santa Fe and the west generally he became more 
communicative and informed me that he had spent all his life 
from a youngster as a prospector, sometimes striking it good 
and selling out and trying it again; sometimes having plenty of 




SATANTA 

War Chief of the Kiowas 

Original in our possession, taken by Soule, 

of Boston, -while -we were 8tatione4 

<it Fort Sill 



LITTLE PILLS 17 

money, and at other times having nothing. Someone else would 
then furnish him a "grub-stake" as he called it with which to try 
again. He and his partners had just sold out a gold mine at 
Cimarron and I presume the money I saw him receive from the 
big man at the pool table was part of the proceeds of that sale. 
He finally asked me if I cared to walk about the town some. I 
think I would have gone with him anywhere, so I responded very 
promptly that I would like to. The town was utterly strange to 
me, so different from anything I had ever seen: adobe walls, 
adobe houses, and the people were as strange looking as the 
houses. The women wore some kind of a wrap over their head 
called a mantilla (pronounced man-tee-ya, with the accent on 
the second syllable) leaving a little open space for onee ye to peep 
out at people they met, and the men with the wide brimmed, 
high peaked hats that I afterwards learned are the universal cos- 
tumes of the Mexican people. After looking around a bit my 
companion asked me if I would like to see a cock-fight. Sure 
thing, of course I would, although having been raised a strict 
Scotch Presbyterian I felt some qualms of conscience about wit- 
nessing such an exhibition on the "Sabbath." 

The amphitheater in which the exhibition was given was 
without cover and enclosed by a high adobe wall. It was crowd- 
ed with men and women, mostly Mexicans, in gala dress, some 
very richly dressed women and some whose attire attested pov- 
erty, but even these wore bright colors. The head covering was 
universal but as varied in colors and quality as the fancy and 
wealth of the wearers suggested. I think some of the hats of 
the men must have cost a small fortune. The exhibition itself 
was not very attractive to me. I could see) the chickens sparring 
around as though for a good opening and finally one of the cocks 
would drive the gaff home with deadly effect and the people 
would shout and clap their hands and exchange the money they 
had wagered on the result. The management would then bring 
in another pair of birds for another contest. The betting con- 
sisted not only of money but all kinds of trinkets and valuables. 
I saw one woman take off her white slippers handsomely orna- 
mented with gold braid and spngles and bet them on the result 



18 LITTLE PILLS 

of the contest. The affair was conducted in Spanish-Mexican and 
I could not understand anything that was said, but they all 
seemed to be delighted with the exhibition. To me it was not 
only cruel but was uninteresting. We did not stay until the 
finish but went out and saw some more of the town, then re- 
turned to our hotel. 

My newly made friend came up to my room after supper, 
and spent part of the evening with me. I found his experiences 
interesting. The old story of ups and downs, money to spare, and 
grub-stakes furnished by some one else, to give him another start. 
He gave me his address and I was very prompt in returning his 
twenty dollars as soon as I got to Fort Selden, which by the way, 
I borrowed from the post trader until pay-day. In answer to 
my remittance I received a post card without address or date say- 
ing, "You needn't have been in such a hurry." Thus ended an 
acquaintance and experience that I think could not have happened 
anywhere else than on the American frontier. His name was 
Robert Daugherty and nothing could give me greater pleasure 
than to meet him again and furnish him a "grub-stake" if he 
needed it. 

Santa Fe (Holy Faith, in Spanish) was an old town when the 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. About 1606 according to 
Colonel R. E. Twitchell, the best authority on the early history of 
New Mexico, it was made the capital of one of the Spanish 
provinces, and had been built on the site of two small Indian 
pueblos. I believe if I had been dropped down in some town in 
the interior of China and had found a few Americans to talk to 
it would not have seemed more strange to me. The office of the 
chief medical officer of the district was located in a building on 
the plaza that someone told me was the old palace, but which I 
thought did not look much like a palace, and which I understand 
is now used as a museum in which are to be found the most re- 
markable collection of archaeological specimens in America. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Monday morning I started for Fort Selden on the Rio 
Grande, nearly three hundred miles away. We had a different 
type of stage coach, a small affair, more like a carriage, and 
drawn by two horses. Some eight or ten miles out of Santa Fe 
we almost literally dropped off into a canon that widened out into 
more of a valley as we continued our journey until we reached 
the Rio Grande some distance above Albuquerque. This town was 
at that time a straggling Mexican village of adobe houses along 
the east bank of the river, ^]jt is now a city of considerable size 
on the east side, with modem improvements and is a division 
point on the Santa Fe railway and a town of commercial import- 
ance. 

The river was disappointing. I expected something bigger, 
and it wound around from one side of the valley to the other as 
though in doubt as to the best way to go. The valley was inter- 
esting because of its being occupied by an altogether different 
type of Indians. We had left the plains Indian at Trinidad and 
from there to Santa Fe had seen only Mexicans with a fair pro- 
portion of Americans whose business interests were in the coun- 
try. The Plains Indian, Cheyennes, Commanches, and Kiowas 
and Arapahoes, were nomadic and warlike. Here was an agri- 
cultural people who lived in little villages called pueblos, a name 
also attached to the Indians themselves. Their villages were lo- 
cated at convenient distances apart and both men and women 
went to the fields to work. The land was divided off into httle 
patches separated by irrigating ditches, called asacies, and there 
were no fences or lines to show individual ownership. It was 
seemingly a community interest, a kind of socialism. The Pueblo 
Isletta was the capital and principal town and was the place of 
meeting for the disposal of important questions of interest to 
the tribe, and for the observance of such religious services as was 
their wont. The hoe was the principal agricultural implement, 
both for making ditches and for cultivating the land. The people 
seemed to be kindly disposed, and in every way a contrast to the 



20 LITTLE PILLS 

Plains Indian whose women do the work while the men do the 
hunting and fighting. They enter their houses by way of the 
roof, climbing a ladder from the ground to the roof and pulling 
the ladder up after them, then descending by way of an opening 
in the room to the room or rooms below. No doors, and only 
little peep-holes for windows, sometimes covered with a thin cloth 
of muslin. I suppose this was done in the first place as a protec- 
tion against the Mountain Indians (Utes and Navajos) who in 
early times raided the valley and carried ff anything they could 
lay their hands on. The valley was sparcely wooded except here 
and there when we would come to great groves or boscas as they 
were called, of immense cotton-wood trees which were very beau- 
tiful. The valley as described above was the same all the way 
down to Fort Selden. 

After leaving the Pueblo settlements we came to a country 
occupied nearly altogether by Mexicans. The commercial interests 
were conducted by so-called foreigners : Americans, Germans and 
Jews, the latter predominating, but the population was principal- 
yl Mexican. Stock raising and farming were the principal in- 
dustries, the latter in a very primitive way. They had no mod- 
ern farm implements, such as plows, harrows, wagons, etc., and 
only such improved tools as they could construct from the scant 
material at hand. I saw at one place a man driving a yoke of 
cattle attached to what appeared to be the limb of a tree with 
a projecting prong entering the ground, and at the other end, 
which bent up something hke a handle, was another man holding 
it. They were going back and forth making little ditches or fur- 
rows but not turning the ground over as our plows do. It looked 
primitive indeed and reminded me of a picture I saw in an 
almanac when a kid, representing the Egyptian plowing. 
Stock business was more promising. A good many cattle were 
reported on the range and I was told the sheep numbered many 
thousands scattered all along the mountain range to the west. 
Soccorro was the principal town, typically Mexican, but a place 
of some business importance. There were small villages at fre- 
quent intervals all the way to Para j a, the last town near the 
river before crossing the Jornada del Muerto (or "Journey of 



LITTLE PILLS 21 

Death" in Spanish) which extends from Paraja (pronounced 
Paraha, j having the sound of h in Spanish) to Fort Selden, 
nearly one hundred miles across, a desert properly named and 
that has some pitiful associations in my memory. It was what 
was known as the Apache Indian country and grewsome stories 
are related concerning it. Death by Indians, famishing for want 
of water, etc., etc, I must tell a legend concerning it and the 
desert country to the east and north. Near Paraja and rising 
bluff from the river's edge is a high bit of mountain, hardly 
worth the name of range, on the top of which lying in a re- 
cumbent position is as perfect profile of a face and bust as you 
could imagine. You get a fine view of it from Fort Craig and 
for a great distance to the northwest and northeast. The legend 
is that a friar, Christobal by name, and for whom the mountain 
or range was named, was traveling through the country on his 
work for the souls of men when he perished from thirst. Some 
supernatural agency brought his body to this mountain top 
where it hardened into stone and remains to this day a monu- 
ment commemorating a tragedy, and a land mark and guide to 
the weary and thirsty traveler pointing the way to where he may 
find water. 

We left Paraja and the river and valley at night after a good 
supper, havins supplied oureslves with water enough for the trip, 
expecting to get breakfast at a place about half-way across, called 
the Alaman (Allemand) literally meaning "Dutchman" where it 
was reported a German had been found some years before, killed 
and scalped by Indians. There had been repeated efforts made 
to find water on this desert. General Pope when a young officer 
of the service had spent a large amount of government money 
digging for water. Finally a man by the name of Martin, a 
Scotchman, who furnished the meat supply at Fort Selden, was 
so persistent with the commanding officer in asserting his ability 
to find water, that he was furnished a body of soldiers as an 
escort and guard and commissary supplies for the undertaking. 
He had been working faithfully and persistently for some months 
He had also put some adobe rooms and had them furnished, his 
hauling his water supply from a spring in a canon some six or 



22 LITTLE PILLS 

eight miles away and had built an adobe wall around his camp. 
He had also put some adobe rooms and had them furnished, his 
wife being an important assistant in the undertaking, and he 
was still sinking his well deeper and expressing an abiding faith 
in the result. It must be a glorious feeling to be vindicated in 
such an undertaking. It was rumored along the overland route 
that; Jack Martin had found water but not enough, and upon our 
arrival we found that he not only had water but had an abund- 
ance of it and our stage was the first to arrive after he struck it. 
After eating a late breakfast, which was a very good one, we 
started for Fort Selden still some fifty miles away. This part 
of the trip was uneventful as we only stopped once to feed and 
water the team, having carried the necessary supplies with us. 
We arrived at Fort Selden in the evening. All the way from 
Santa Fe down I frequently noticed little piles of stone by the 
wayside, sometimes with little hand-made wooden crosses stand- 
ing up in the center marking the place where someone had met 
a violent death, maybe by Indians or maybe at the hands of some 
renegade Mexicans. It is the custom among the Mexican people 
in passing to toss another stone on the pile and in this way some 
of them became of considerable size, the size of the pile indicat- 
ing in a way the time that had elapsed since the murder had been 
committed. 

I reported to the commanding officer at the post and the 
following day was assigned to duty. By invitation I took dinner 
with one of the officers the evening of my arrival. Among other 
good things we had a choice roast of beef which they informed 
me was from their very choice and only milk cow. It seems the 
herders were not sufficiently on guard and this animal had be- 
come separated from the herd but in rounding up the herd in 
the evening it was discovered that this particular cow had an 
Indian arrow in hex side and on examination it was thought best 
some small timber and underbrush along the streams affording 
to kill her. The good woman did not have much appetite for 
beef but grieved over the loss of her favorite cow. There was 
a good hiding place for sneaking Apaches who might be disposed 
to commit depredations. It was the rule at this post that when 



LITTLE PILLS 23 

the officers' wives wanted to take an airing to send an escort 
along with the ambulance as a protection against the Indians. 

It was a two company post and the duties of the medical 
officer were light; so much so as to become a little monotonous, 
but was sometimes varied by a trip to Las Cruces or Messilla, 
some fifteen or eighteen miles distant. These towns were at one 
time separated by the river but some years before an unusual 
flood had swept down the valley and the river had made a new 
channel leaving the towns close neighbors. Even in those days 
they were places of some importance. 

While stationed at this post I made my first acquaintance 
with gambling. It did not take me long to learn that it was 
the universal custom in the country. The Sutler's or Post Trad- 
er's store wa sa favorite resort for those who indulged in the 
various games. I remember an old man camping not far from 
the post who made it his business. He remained there for some 
time and in conversation one day I expressed my surprise at the 
universal custom and he informed me that he had rather bet his 
money on Monte than loan it out at ten per cent interest, and 
yet his dress and camping outfit did not indicate a man of 
fortune. 

One of the most interesting incidents of my experience here 
was one Sunday morning after inspection when a group of 
officers were standing out on the parade grounds talking on 
various subjects when one of them was attracted by something 
at our feet and called attention to it. Upon closer investigation 
we discovered it to be the outlines of a human skull, the top of 
which had been worn away by the trampling of many feet over 
the parade ground. The post commander ordered the dirt re- 
moved from around it and thus unearthed a complete human 
skeleton except where the top of the head had been worn away. 
It was in a sitting position with the knees flexed up close to the 
chin but the bones crumbled upon being exposed to the air. There 
was no evidence of shroud or other covering to the body. What 
race of people buried their dead that way? How long had it 
been in its resting place? 



24 LITTLE PILLS 

This post at that time was about seven hundred miles from 
the railroad. I doubt if there is a place in the United States 
today outside of Alaska or our insular possession where one could 
go and be seven hundred miles from a railroad. 

Along in the first part of May of that year I received orders 
from the chief medical officer of the district to exchange places 
with Dr. Seguin, post surgeon at Fort Craig. General Grover 
was the commanding officer at Fort Craig and was considered a 
good deal of a Martinet. As explained to me by Doctor Seguin, 
it seems that Mrs. Grover wanted something from the hospital 
which the doctor declined to send her and General Grover there- 
upon ordered it sent. The doctor disobeyed the order and the 
matter was carried to district headquarters and probably higher 
up for it involved the question of military discipline and also the 
rights of medical officers under army regulations. It is well 
enough here to say that the medical corps is a corps to itself, 
distinct from any other branch of the service, and orders come 
through the medical officers from the surgeon general down to 
the divisions; departments and districts, and yet at the military 
post the commanding officer is supposed to be "monarch of all 
he surveys" os you see there was a chance for controversy. Any 
way it was settled by Doctor Seguin being ordered to Fort Selden 
to take my place and I to his place at Fort Carig. 

General Grover was a severe looking man past middle age, 
and had seen service on the frontier before the Civil War. He 
was a strict disciplinarian and held himself aloof from every- 
thing around. I have seen him walking down the line of officers' 
quarters straight as an arrow, maybe with hands elapsed behind 
his back and an orderly walking the proper distance behind. He 
never entered an officer's quarters but if he wanted anything he 
would send his orderly to the officer with "the General's com- 
pliments and would like to see you." The officer then walked out 
to where the general was standing and at the proper distance 
stopped, stood at attention and saluted and waited for such com- 
munications as the general would make. He then saluted again 
and returned to his quarters and the general went on his way. 



LITTLE PILLS 25 

Mrs. Grover was confined soon after my arrival at the post 
and gave birth to a daughter. When the general was called in 
to see the new arrival he merely looked at it, gave a grunt, or 
"huh," and then turned and walked out. Mrs. Grover was the 
most queenly looking woman I ever saw ; a magnificent physique ; 
a commanding presence and a dignified and gracious manner. 
She seemed to possess all the qualities my imagination had con- 
jured up as befitting a queen. She was the daughter of Dr. 
Austin Flint, Sr., whom I mentioned in an earlier chapter, and a 
sister of Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., the eminent physiologist. I was 
frequently called to their quarters to see the baby, not I thought, 
that it needed anything, but that the mother wanted someone 
to talk with. The general was civil enough to me but never 
cordial I think it was not his nature to be so. He invited me 
occasionally to go with him in his carriage to places away from 
the post, say to Para j a some twelve miles away, or perhaps just 
for a ride, a courtesy he never extended to other officers of the 
post. On these little excursions I found that the general was an 
interesting talker, mostly with reference to his experiences on 
the frontier before the war. The war itself and the army since 
the war was never mentioned that I remember. He had been 
a major general during the war and was now a colonel and it was 
thought by most of the officers that he felt humiliated by being 
assigned to a negro regiment, the twenty-fourth infantry. I 
was invited to their quarters one morning for breakfast and 
maybe one or two other meals during the summer but as I 
remember them now they were rather formal and uninteresting. 

Fort Craig was a walled fort, made so in early days as a pro- 
tection against Indians. It was typical of most of the posts at 
which I served in being built in the form of a square. The parade 
ground being a square plot varying in size at different posts, 
around which are located the buildings. The officers occupying 
one side of the square; the barracks being directly opposite and 
the commissary and quarter master department generally occu- 
pying one side and the commanding officer's quarters and post 
headquarters and adjutant's office occupying the other side. At 
Fort Craig just outside of these buildings was an adobe wall 



26 LITTLE PILLS 

about ten feet high. Next to the guardhouse was an opening 
large enough for wagons to enter the parade ground with heavy- 
gates to close at night, and there were some small openings in 
the wall for other purposes, one being near the hospital. The 
walls of the buildings were of adobe with heavy timbers across to 
support the roof of dirt. The floors were what the Mexicans 
called "Jaspa" (pronounced Haspa), a kind of cement made of 
gypsum or lime sulphate which is found in great beds through a 
great portion of New Mexico. It is quarried or blasted out, 
heated to drive out the water or crystalization, then ground into 
a powder and when mixed with sand and water makes a pretty 
fair quality of cement. It was used altogether in the floors for 
the military posts along the Rio Grande. 

The water supply at Fort Craig was obtained from the Rio 
Grande river and there were times about June when the snows 
mented in the mountains that it answered very well to a descrip- 
tion I once read of the Missouri river water, "Too thick to drink 
and too thin to cultivate." This was a great bother to us during 
the summer rise for it was persistent for more than a month. I 
conceived the idea of making a filter by making a good sized ball 
of jaspa and charcoal which I held together by mixing a little 
cotton batting carefully in the mortar and kneeding it into a very 
stiff paste. After it hardened I bored a hole in the ball and in- 
serted a rubber tube and thei^ put the ball in a "Tanaja," a large 
ungalvanized earthen jar holding eight or ten gallons of the 
muddy water. This jar was put in an army blanket and was 
swung in the hallway. The jar being porus would let enough 
water through to keep tha blanket damp, which cooled the water. 
By swinging another tanaja just below the first and having it 
blanketed in the same way, and having a rubber tube connecting 
the two, I had a filter that furnished clear, sparking, cool water. 
I put one in the hospital and they became quite the vogue at the 
post. 

The wood supply was brought from the mountains some 
thirty miles away. Trains comprising several wagons would be 
sent out in charge of a wagonmaster with men enough to load 
them promptly and by starting early and returning late they 



LITTLE PILLS 27 

sometimes made the round trip in two days, but generally they 
were three days out. 

For a month or more I was in the officers' mess, consisting 
only of single men or those whose families were away. The meals 
were rather stately affairs and to me seemed a little tinged with 
the ridiculous in that far-away place. There was a colored man 
standing behind each officer's chair dressed in the proper toggery 
to do his duty and to give him every attention. I never saw any 
more perfect service at any hotel and the table was the best the 
commissary department and the surrounding country would pro- 
vide. 

Prices outside the commissary were much higher than we 
had then in Iowa. Eggs , were fifty cents a dozen ; butter a dollar 
and a quarter a pound. I paid these prices regularly when I 
started my own mess. I had what was called a student's lamp 
in those days and paid five dollars a gallon for coaloil, as it was 
then called. Of course that was before oil tanks were known and 
it was carried across the plains in barrels, maybe in hot weather, 
and on slow moving ox trains, being months on the way. The 
evaporation would necessarily be very great, and by the time 
the sutler's store got its percent of profit (probably one hundred 
percent or more) one could easily see that fifty cent oil in Iowa 
could easily be five dollars in New Mexico. Some years later at 
Fort McRae, further down the river, we got it for two dollars 
and a half; per gallon by sending a five gallon can to Santa Fe to 
be filled. 

Thinking that I was a fixture at Fort Craig for some time 
I wrote my wife and asked her to join me after her visit in the 
East was over. In view of her coming I started a mess of my 
own and had a little colored drummer boy detailed as servant and 
cook. He was as black as night and I called him Sandy. To start 
with I laid in a pretty good supply of commissaries, among them 
ten pounds of cut loaf sugar. I had my first dinner on Saturday 
and the following Monday morning I asked Sandy if anything was 
needed. "Yas sah. Doctor, we needs some moah sugar." Why 
Sandy, I said, we got ten pounds of each kind on Saturday, which 
kind do you want? "We needs some moah cut loaf sugar, sah," 



28 LITTLE PILLS 

he said. What, cut loaf sugar? "Yas sail, Doctor, it takes a 
powerful sight 'o sugar for deserts." Well all right Sandy, I said, 
I'll see about it. I thought it was going pretty fast for onlj- tWvO 
dinners so I stopped on my way back from the hospital at Major 
Sweet's quarters and asked Mrs. Sweet how much cut loaf sugar 
they used. She was bright and quick as a flash, and wished to 
know, while trying to look serious, why I asked such a question. 
Finally she broke out into a jolly rippling laugh and said, "I 
know what's the matter, Sandy has been carrying your sugar off 
to the laundresses." I told Sandy when I returned to my quart- 
ers that I did not mind his having all the sugar he wanted him- 
self but I did not want to feed all the laundresses at the post on 
cut loaf sugar. He did better afterwards but I still think the 
laundresses got some sugar. 

There is no other part of the country so far as I know where 
skunks were so plentiful as in New Mexico. They were a nuisance 
at all the posts at which I served in that territory, but if pos- 
sible were worse at Fort Craig than elsewhere. One evening I 
had gone to the post trader's to get my mail and upon my return 
I found the odor in my quarters so pronounced that I investigated 
and found that Sandy had killed a skunk in the kitchen. He ex- 
plained by saying that he had tried to drive it out and could not 
do so and that he had killed it. I told him to open up all the 
windows and doors and scrub the kitchen floor and I went back 
to the sutler's store in self protection. I did not return until late 
when I found the odor worse than ever and Sandy explained the 
matter this time by saying another skunk came in and had made 
its way into my bed-room and got under the wardrobe and he 
could not get it out and was compelled to kill it. This he did 
by punching it to death. The result can be imagined, but not 
very well described. I slept on a cot in the front room for some 
time afterwards and found hunting and out-door exercise more 
interesting than remaining in my quarters. 

The sand storms at Fort Craig were something to remember, 
or rather I should say impossible to forget. They are simply a 
straight wind blowing with terrific force and loaded with fine 
sand and dust and very fine gravel. I remember particularly one 



LITTLE PILLS 29 

that came up one day when the steward and I were making out 
the monthly reports at the hospital. The windows and doors were 
closed and everything made as snug as possible, yet when the 
storm was over one made tracks when walking across the floor 
as visible as he would have made walking along a sandy highway. 
It was a serious matter to be out in one of them, for unless the 
face was covered one would suffer severely from the stinging sand 
and fine gravel, and everything a short distance away was shut 
out from sight. There are also some pleasant things to remem- 
ber of my experience at this post. The hunting, particularly of 
wild fowl, was very good, the ducks remaining late in the spring 
and returning early in the fall. The sunsets were beautiful be- 
yond my power of description. It was my first summer in a rari- 
fied atmosphere and I imagined at times I could see objects mov- 
ing along the mountain range some thirty miles away. I remem- 
ber one evening when Doctor Seguin was visiting a few days with 
me on his return from Fort Selden to New York, having left the 
service, we were out for a walk together and were up on a little 
mound just west of the post as the sun went down and his at- 
tention was called to the beautiful cloud effects. He remarked 
that he had never seen anything more beautiful in Italy. The 
doctor was a Frenchman by birth ; his father was a medical man 
of distinction, and while most of his life had been spent in this 
country he had traveled extensively abroad and his education, 
particularly in medicine, had been acquired in Europe. He was 
now returning to New York to take up his work as a lecturer on 
nervous diseases in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

While the doctor was visiting with me we went up to San 
Marcial to witness the games on St. John's day, June 24th. San 
Marcial was at that time a small straggling Mexican village of one 
street with adobe houses on each side and all told maybe had one 
hundred inhabitants. We did not go into any of the houses and 
only witness one game of any interest, it was a rough-and-tumble 
affair and excited great interest among the Mexicans. A rooster 
with its legs tied would be buried in a little mound of sand in the 
middle of the street, leaving only its head and neck sticking above 
the mound. The game was for the horsemen to form in line 



30 LITTLE PILLS 

some distance up the street and come at full speed swooping 
down from the saddle, grab the chicken by the head, and then 
the battle was on for the chicken. The possessor of the unfortun- 
ate chicken would striken out over adobe walls and across irrigat- 
ing ditches, anywhere to get out of the way of his pursuers and 
when at last he would be cornered, or surrounded, a battle royal 
would follow. I could not determine how the matter was de- 
cided but when the game was over they would come back and 
repeat the performance. There were many misses in their efforts 
to pick up the rooster, but a few of the contestants were more 
expert than the others and several succeeded in swinging down 
and retrieving the rooster from the mound of sand. We left 
while the game was still in progress. In all the games I witnessed 
among the Mexicans there appeared the element of cruelty in 
some form or other. 

During the summer of 1869 while stationed at this post I 
went to Paraja to see the Penitentes parade. I don't know why 
it was called a parade for it was an exhibition of cruelty that 
I have never at any other time in my life seen equaled. It was 
supposed to be a religious ceremony but consisted of a proces- 
sion in single file of those who had committed great crimes or 
sins. The one in front carried a great wooden cross, the cross- 
bar of which rested on his neck and shoulders, he carrying it in 
a somewhat stooped position. It was of an enormous size, the 
cross-bar extending as I estimated it, at least eight feet in length 
and the stem in proportion. It had been made of dry cotton- 
wood logs and hewn out to probably eight or ten inches square 
and was a crude looking affair, but was probably not as heavy as 
it looked. The one bearing this cross took the lead and was 
naked to the waist and from there down wore only a single cotton 
garment, pants-like in shape, but very full, something like a skirt, 
and all those following were dressed in a similar way. All were 
bare-footed and there were probably twenty or more of them. 
Each carried thongs with which he struck the man in front of 
him on the bare back, all acting in something like uniformity as 
to time and repeating in unison and in a drone like voice some- 
thing in Spanish that I could not understand. Before the pro- 



LITTLE PILLS 31 

cession ended the backs of most of the participants were notably- 
bloody and some of them very much so. Para j a is located liter- 
ally in a bed of sand and I wondered how they could stand it that 
hot August day in their bare feet and the bloody work of the 
thongs left the impression on my mind of being a most brutal 
performance. But they were sincere and no doubt believed they 
were atoning for sins committed. What kind of a God is it who 
would accept such an atonment or approve of its offering? The 
faces of the participants were mostly of a brutal type and they 
looked as though they were capable of committing almost any 
crime. This exhibition did not impress me as in any way religi- 
ous but on the contrary as exceedingly barbarious and supersti- 
tious. 

By act of Congress during the winter of 1868 and 1869 the 
army was ordered reduced, which to me was a serious matter as 
it rendered improbable any convening of a medical board for 
examination of medical officers for promotion, at least for some 
years to come. As I remember such line officers as wished to 
resign could do so with the privilege of a year's additional pay, 
and enough others would be dropped from the service to bring 
the number down to the required standard, also with a year's ad- 
ditional pay. The only difference being that of resigning or being 
dropped from the service. Quite a number of line officers pre- 
ferred resigning. Among those who did so was Lieutenant Page 
of the twenty-fourth infantry at Fort Craig. He proposed selling 
me his cow and I proposed trading him my pistol for it. He 
thought the matter over and said that he proposed locating on a 
farm in Missouri and the pistol might come very handy, so we 
made the exchange. He came to visit me at Girard, Kansas, after 
I had quit the service and gave me a farther history of the pistol. 
He had missed a good deal of com from his fields and watched 
for the thieves and shot one of them quite seriously. The matter 
got into the courts and being so soon aftei* the War the factional 
feeling had not died out, and the long litigation that followed 
almost bankrupted Mr. Page, rather a disreputable record for a 
pistol to make, but I imagine that there have been comparatively 
few occasions where pistols were used in personal encounters, 



32 LITTLE PILLS 

that it would not have been better if they had never been made. 
I expected my wife in September. In the meantime Captain 
Lawson had returned from a leave of absence and joined my mess 
until his wife should come. Just before I expected by wife to 
start on her trip to join me, a command came up from Texas, an 
exchange of regiments had been ordered. The fifteenth infantry 
went to the Department of the Missouri, and the twenty-fourth 
infantry to the Department of Texas, and I was ordered to ac- 
company, a part of the fifteenth infantry from Fort Craig to Fort 
Wingate, New Mex. I at once wrote my wife to await develop- 
ments. She had already started and got as far as Fort Wallace, 
Kans., near the terminus of the railroad when word reached her 
from Fort Wingate that I was to go with one company of the 
fifteenth infantry to Fort Dodge, Kans., and she could meet me 
at Fort Lyon, Colo., which would be on my way to Fort Dodge. 



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CHAPTER III. 

Fort Wingate is a post about one hundred and fifty miles 
west and a little north of Albuquerque and in the mountains in 
what was then called the Navajo country. While there I saw one 
of the squaws making a Navajo blanket. I supposed it would be 
called weaving but was unlike any weaving I ever saw, yet when 
a lad I was quite familiar with the looms and spinning wheels 
of the times, and the making of cloth. The blanket making ap- 
peared to be a very tedious process, the warp being held taut by 
stakes in the ground and the filling or woof worked in under and 
over the threads forming the warp and pressed in place by a 
little flat piece of wood passing between the threads of the warp. 
I could more readily understand why the blankets were so ex- 
pensive. 

We remained at Wingate probably two weeks. I was a guest 
of Doctor Vickery, the post surgeon. He was a most charming 
host and all-around good fellow. He gave me a little handful of 
garnets the Indians had brought him from the little ant hills so 
abundant in the country. I sent a few of the choicest stones to 
Tiffany & Company of New York and had two rings made; one 
for my wife and one for* a friend, the post surgeon's wife at Fort 
Wallace, who had been most kind to her while she was waiting 
for an opportunity to join me. 

The company from Fort Wingate to Fort Dodge together 
with the headquarters' paraphernalia was under the command of 
Mr. Krause, a lieutenant of the fifteenth infantry. Instead of 
coming around by Albuquerque we came part way and then cut 
across country to the northeast. When within a few miles of the 
Rio Grande the wagon road bore down to the southeast. The 
infantry cut across in the direction of Barnalillo (double L has 
the sound of E in Spanish) and the transportation followed the 
wagon road. Mr. Krause and I took the ambulance and when we 
reached the river in place of going up stream on the west side as 
the wagons were directed to do we crossed over to the old over- 
land stage route and then went north on the east side. It was 



34 LITTLE PILLS 

late when we reached the outskirts of the town and we noticed 
a great light as though some building was on fire. We had now 
left the stage road and were trying to find one that would take 
us to a crossing on the river. We were about to enter the town 
or pueblo, for it was an Indian pueblo, when we had a good view 
of the fire which proved to be an immense bonfire in the middle 
of the street with many people gathered around it. An Indian 
met us and gave us to understand that we could go no farther. 
With what little Spanish we could command, and by signs, we got 
him to understand that we wanted to reach the command on the 
other side of the river. By that time another Indian or two had 
joined us and they at once took the matter in hand. One of them 
got into the ambulance and by signs indicated to the driver which 
way to go and the first man to meet us signalled Mr. Kruse and 
myself to follow him. He would take us through the pueblo, but 
started around the outskirts of the place and after what seemed 
to me an interminable time brought us up at a high bluff. It was 
quite dark and we could see the campfires across the river, but 
how to get there, or whether we would get there, seemed ques- 
tionable to me. However, the Indian knew what he was about, 
and soon found the place he wanted, and disappeared over the 
side of the bluff on what proved to be steps cut out of the rock, 
leading down to the valley below. It was then only a short dis- 
tance to the ford and our guide motioned us to stay there, and we 
understood he wanted us to wait for the ambulance, but he waded 
across the river. We found him on our arrival in camp carrying 
wood for the campfires and seemingly greatly pleased at being 
able to help us. We gave him a dollar at which he was evidently 
delighted. The transportation arrived soon after we reached 
camp and all was right again. 

We reached Santa Fe early, in November — I think the 4th — 
and only stayed in town a few hours to rest and report to district 
headquarters where arrangements were made to have the pay- 
master come out to a place agreed on some five miles out where 
we would camp that night and pay off the men. This precaution 
was taken because there are always some men who cannot stand 
prosperity and will blow their money for anything they may 



LITTLE PILLS 35 

fancy, particularly for liquor, and quite a number of them were 
likely to get drunk and be put in the guardhouse and cause delay 
in getting away from the town. It seems however, that some 
of them had money and those disposed to load up on "tangle- 
foot" had borrowed enough to put themselves past good march- 
ing condition, for at roll call preparatory to being paid off, some 
were missing and came straggling into camp one at a time later on 
in the afternoon, one without shoes, hat or clothing, excepting 
underwear, and one entirely naked. They had fallen out of ranks 
and taken a nap, and on trying to join the command had been 
held up by Mexicans. Of course their guns and accountrements 
had gone with their clothing. We were camped where we could 
see some distance back along the road we had come and it was 
rather an odd sight to see the men coming into camp in that 
condition. It was quite ridiculous to see men in such uniforms, 
or rather lack of them, come into camp, stand at attention and 
salute when reporting to the commanding officer. 

We followed the old overland stage route from Santa Fe to 
Fort Lyon, Colo., a distance of nearly three hundred miles. From 
there it was some two hundred miles to our destination at Fort 
Dodge. There was little of interest on the way to Fort Lyons, 
the usual routine of making and breaking camp and marching 
during the day. By this time the men were thoroughly hardened 
to the march and the roads being good we made good time. It is 
interesting to know that for a distance of one thousand miles 
men will beat horses. 

At Cimarron we waked up in the morning to find six inches 
of snow on the ground and at Wooton's just north of the crest 
of Raton Pass, we stayed two or three days to have transporta- 
tion repaired. I hunted a little but as I was afraid to go far from 
camp found nothing. One evening while there, Mr. Krause and I 
went down to Trinidad, a mining town of some importance in 
those days with the usual equipment of saloons and gambhng 
halls. I had some curiosity to see the later, so we visited one. 
It was located in a long room a hundred feet or more in length 
by probably forty feet wide, in which there were many tables, 
at most of which were men engaged in playing games. The 



36 LITTLE PILLS 

poker players sat at small tables, four or five players around each 
one, with stacks of chips or money at their side, or perhaps a 
buckskin sack containing- gold dust, (for this was a placer mining 
camp) which was weighed out as occasion demanded in the 
fluctuations of the game. At other tables dice were used, or balls 
were rolled, and the bets were made as to which httle pocket 
they would enter. Everything was quiet and orderly and serious- 
ly business-like. It was a curious exhibition and to this day I 
do not understand the fascination that seems to be in it. 

At Trinidad we were still a hundred miles or more from 
Fort Lyons where I expected to meet my wife, and while we 
made exceptional progress for infantry it seemed all too slow for 
me. It was on the 25th of November when we reached Fort 
Lyons, and I had the great pleasure of seeing my wife and baby 
boy again. We rested over for two or three days at Fort Lyon 
and then started on the last long lap of nearly two hundred miles 
down the Arkansas river to Fort Dodge, Kans. We did not see 
a habitation or a soul on the way except at one place where a man 
was standing at the roadside as we passed along. He informed 
us that he and his partner were there killing buffalo and poison- 
ing wolves for their hides. We found an immense gray wolf 
lying by the roadside and the men threw it on one of the wagons 
and we left it with the lone hunter by the roadside. 

When pretty well down toward Fort Dodge, I had one of 
the most exciting hunting experiences of my life. Buffalo in 
great numbers were seen nearly all the way down and I was 
anxious to get a fine robe from an animal I had killed myself. 
My opportunity occurred one afternoon after we had gone into 
camp. I saw a good sized herd leave the river and start back to 
the high ground to graze, probably a mile or more away. I did 
not know any better than to go on foot and alone. It never oc- 
curred to me that there could be any danger. The ground was 
level as a floor and I got up within a hundred yards or less and 
picked out a large black bull that I thought would furnish the 
prize I was after, and fired. At the crack of the rifle he started 
for me and of course I turned and ran, and ran for my very life. 
I thought how hopeless it looked for me, for the camp seemed 



LITTLE PILLS 37 

far away, but I did my best. Finally I could hear him close be- 
hind me and while I expected every moment to be gored it oc- 
curred that he was breathing heavily, and I kept the pace as best 
I could until the breathing seemed less distinct and looking over 
my shoulder I discovered that he had stopped running and was 
walking around and around. However, I kept going until I was 
sure I was at a safe distance and then fell on the ground and 
lay there for a while. My heart was beating like a trip-hammer. 
I had no notion then of giving up the contest and as he turned 
broadside to me I fired and he started, and I started for another 
race. He did not make much headway this time and my courage 
arose accordingly. Pretty soon he stopped again and commenced 
turning around. He did not chase me again, but it took the 
fourth shot before he fell. The rifles of those days were very 
diflferent from the modem repeating rifles. This was a breech 
loader with only a single shot and it was necessary to raise up 
what was called the breachblock by hand and insert the cartridge, 
then replace the breachblock, cock the gun, and you were ready 
for another shot. Too slow a process when a mad buffalo is 
chasing you. 

I had been aiming for the heart but shot too high and the 
wound in the lungs had caused the blood to choke him so he 
could not keep up the pace. All four of the shots went into a 
space not larger than my hand and one of the bullets lodged 
under the skin on the opposite side which I was careful to keep 
as a souvenir of the chase. Some of the enlisted men who had 
gone out to the right for a shot came to my assistance and 
skinned the animal for me and carried the hide into camp. They 
assured me that the animal was certainly within ten or fifteen 
feet of me at one time during our race. 

Another hunting incident occurred on our trip down the val- 
ley in which I was only a spectator. Some men had gone off 
into the hills to get a buffalo for the command. They had sep- 
arated one from the herd and had wounded it and got the animal 
tui'ned in the direction so as to cross the road ahead of the 
command When it came in sight our cook became enthused with 
the idea of going out and killing it and thus have some of the 



38 LITTLE PILLS 

glorv of the chase. He asked permission to take my riding mule 
that followed behind the ambulance. I readily gave my consent 
and watched the proceedings with a good deal of interest. He 
started away at full speed with a pistol in one hand swinging it 
in anticipation of a great victory. All went well enough until 
the mule got close to the game when I suppose he got a whiff of 
an odor that did not please him, for without slacking his pace 
he turned and never stopped until he was back in the rear of 
the ambulance again. All this with the rider making the most 
frantic effort to get him into the fight. He did not even get a 
shot. The buffalo was killed near the road and loaded on one 
of the wagons and taken into camp. 

Another little incident occurred on this trip that was quite 
exciting for a few moments: We had camped near the river in 
some very tall grass, blue-stem I think it was called, the company 
some little distance away and to windward of headquarters. Some 
way in starting their campfire, it got beyond their control, and a 
shout in that direction gave as warning. I gathered the baby 
in my arms and we all ran for the river. Fortunately there was 
a sandbar extending out from the bank and we jumped some four 
or five feet down to that, and huddled up against the bank until 
the danger was past. There was a strong wind blowing and it 
v/as all over in a few moments. We thought of the ammunition 
wagon and feared the results, but the only harm done was a 
little scorching of my wife's side-saddle which was under the 
wagon. Only those who have seen a prairie fire in tall grass with 
a stiff wind blowing, can picture the scene as it actually happen- 
ed. The ground was swept clean but was black with the ashes 
and stubble of the burned grass.. 

On arriving at Fort Dodge we stayed a few days waiting 
for a surgeon who was returning from Fort Larned and who 
accompanied us from Fort Dodge to Fort Hayes, Kans. While 
at Fort Dodge there was a dust storm that continued for three 
or four days, blowing a steady gale during that time. Major 
Morris was commanding officer at that post and I remember a 
lieutenant, Phil Reed, who was a charming and entertaining 
talker at the table. My recollection is that he was afterwards 



LITTLE PILLS 39 

married to Minnie Reams, an actress of note at that time. The 
road from Fort Dodge to Fort Hayes was a very desolate one. By 
starting early and urging our team along until after dark we 
came to a stream bordered by timber where we camped for the 
night. It was snowing very hard when we reached camp and 
by morning there were six or eight inches of snow on the ground. 
The road was so obscure in many places that we were doubtful 
whether we were on the right road or on any road at all. Not 
a house or sign of life in all that great white waste and even 
now I think of it as the most desolate day of all my life. We 
arrived at Fort Hayes after midnight of the second day, and were 
soon comfortably located at Doctor Meacham's quarters and 
sound asleep. My orders read to accompany the command to 
Fort Dodge and then proceed to St. Louis, Mo., and report to the 
medical director of the department which had been changed from 
Fort Leavenworth to that place. We were now at the railroad 
and the worst of the long journey from Fort Craig, N. Mex., to 
St. Louis was over. 

When in the ticket office at Fort Hayes arranging my trans- 
portation, I was introduced to one of the most noted characters 
on the frontier. He was generally known as "Wild Bill," but his 
name was Hickok and his brother had been our wagon master 
from Fort Wingate to Fort Dodge. He did not look wild at all 
but was a rather mild mannered and genteel looking fellow. He 
had long hair and wore good clothes and had nothing of the 
appearance of a desperado. 

The trip to St. Louis was uneventful. 



CHAPTER IV. 

On reporting to the medical director at St. Louis I was 
ordered to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, (now Oklahoma) by way 
of railroad to Fort Scott, Kans., and thence by stage to my desti- 
nation. We arrived at Fort Scott, Kans., late in the evening. 
This was theend of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Rail- 
road at that time, and a booming town The hotels were crowded 
and we had great difficulty in finding a place to sleep, but finally 
were located at what was called the Western Hotel where we 
were fortunate enough to get a room for ourselves. Many were 
compelled to sleep on cots or beds made down on the floor in sit- 
ting rooms, dining rooms and parlors. 

• The next morning I waded through deep snow some dist- 
ance southeast of town to a soldiers' camp where Major Roy 
was in command and reported. He informed me that it would 
be impossible for me to go by stage to Fort Sill, that the stages 
had quit running on account of the deep snow, and that he would 
order me back to St. Louis, which he did. We arrived in St. 
Louis about the 20th of December, and stopped at the Lindell, one 
of the good hotels in those days. The controversy between 
Doctor Mills, the medical director and the department quarter- 
master was quite amusing. The doctor ending up by saying, 
"You sent him the only road he couldn't go." It was decided I 
should wait for a boat down the Mississippi and up the Arkansas 
to Fort Smith, and stage across country from there to Fort Sill. 
On my first arrival at St. Louis from the West I had gone to 
see a furrier about tanning my buffalo hide and he informed me 
it would require several days to put it in prime condition. I went 
to see him again on our return to St. Louis and was told it would 
probably be ready by the time we would start to Fort Sill by 
boat and that he would make a robe I would be proud of. He sent 
it to the boat the day before we left, and as it seemed a little 
damp, I spread it out on the hurricane deck to dry. As it dried 
it became hard around the edges and I kept trimming away the 
hard parts, particularly those of the neck and legs until I had 



LITTLE PILLS 41 

my robe in the shape of a parallelogram. This was disappointing 
but I still praised it as a souvenir of the chase. We found it a 
very great help in keeping us warm while in the stage from Fort 
Smith to Fort Sill. It disappeared one night while hanging out- 
side of cur tent at Fort Sill which was only a camp at that time. 
It had cost me a most thrilling experience when first getting 
possession of it and then ten dollars to have it tanned, and now 
after a short service it was gone and I concluded it was hardly 
worth the ammunition. 

We were in St. Louis a week or more waiting for the boat 
to start and while there we had the pleasure of seeing Joseph 
Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle." He was then in his prime and 
although I have seen and heard him since in the same play it 
did not appeal to me in the same way it did at the first per- 
formance. 

I think it was the last day of December that we went on the 
boat and started on our trip down the river the following evening. 
It was a Ught craft, stem wheel boat, and I was amazed at the 
vast quantity of freight that it carried. The trip down the Miss- 
issippi was without incident but we had frequent delays on the 
Arkansas unloading freight and crossing sandbars. From Little 
Rock to Fort Smith we tie^ up every night. Most of the time up 
the Arkansas a man stood at the head of the boat taking sound- 
ings. 

We were cordially received and entertained on our arrival at 
Fort Smith by the post surgeon, Doctor Theibaut and his family, 
where we remained two or three days. 

We started from Fort Smith very early in the morning, about 
four o'clock if I remember rightly, and it was very cold. In the 
stage with us, was a deputy United States marshal, who told us 
of the disastrous results attending those who brought liquor into 
the country — confiscation of property, jail sentences, etc. The 
trouble with us was that we had a bottle of brandy with us. By 
the time we stopped for breakfast my wife was thoroughly arous- 
ed to the importance of the occasion and whispering to me ex- 
pressed her fears. I tried to assure her that it would be all right, 
and that no one would search an army officer's baggage, but it 



42 LITTLE PILLS 

was of no use, and when the marshal was out of sight I broke 
the bottle over the fence corner and went into breakfast as 
though nothing had happened. We learned afterwards that army 
officers were permitted to bring it in for their own use and while 
at Fort Sill I had some sent me with other medical supplies. 

It was very cold fon a day or two and we had the stage to 
ourselves after the marshal left us. I think it was the following 
night when we were in some very rough mountainous country 
that the driver stopped the stage and asked if I would get up on 
the outside with him, explaining that his team was hard to man- 
age and that he might need assistance, to which I readily consent- 
ed. The team was spirited enough and we went along at a 
spinning gait. I thought noticeably so for such rough roads and 
I believe my wife thought it was the ride of her life. After two 
or three hours the driver said he believed the team was settling 
down and would probably not give any trouble and if I wished 1 
could go back inside the stage where it was warmer. I accepted 
this suggestion promptly and found it much more comfortable. 
The driver explained to me at the end of his division that in the 
rough country we had passed there were frequent hold-ups and 
he thought someone ought to sit with him to create the impres- 
sion that the stage was loaded and highwaymen would be less 
liable to attack it. 

The second day out we had dinner at the house of the chief 
of the Chickasaws, having had breakfast at a freedman's house, 
both of which were worth describing. When we entered the house 
for breakfast there were a few smoldering coals in the fireplace 
although it was quite cold. There was some wood by the chimney 
and I stirred up the embers and put on some wood and soon had 
a fire started. The table was set in the next room, if so called, 
for it was only partly enclosed, so it was practically as cold as out 
of doors. On the table was some headcheese and cornbread, light 
rolls and sweet potatoes, aU frozen so that the frost stood out on 
them, and some black coffee and no cream or milk. I managed to 
cut off a piece of the headcheese and cornbread and took my 
coffee and went back to the fireplace to eat and my wife soon fol- 
lowed, making her breakfast on some cookies we had brought 



LITTLE PILLS 43 

with us. For this treat we were charged the modest sum of 
fifty cents each. At, dinner we had some fried pork, fried eg-gs 
swimming in grease, and coffee similar to that we had at break- 
fast, and combread and all at the same price. 

The evening of the third day we arrived at Fort Arbuckle 
and were the guests of Doctor Brewer and family for two or 
three days and were most hospitably entertained. From Fort 
Arbuckle to Fort Sill we went in an army ambulance, the distance 
being eighty to a hundred miles. We camped one night along 
the road and I shot my first wild turkey at this camp. 

Fort Sill at that time was only a camp, but there was a saw- 
mill on Cache creek a short distance below, where they were get- 
ting out material for permanent quarters, barracks and store- 
houses. The plan was for a six company post, and at that time 
there were two companies of infantry and six troops of cavalry 
stationed there. I reported on my arrival as usual and after 
being settled in our tent, was assigned to duty by Doctor Forward, 
the post surgeon. 

Doctor Forward was among the oldest assistant surgeons in 
the service and I thought a little peculiar in some ways. He was 
dignified and cordial but after assigning me to duty I thought he 
showed little interest in the service. He would call at my 
quarters occasionally and say that he wished to go over to the 
hospital and would look carefully over everything and would go 
away simply remarking that everything was all right. I remem- 
ber going to his quarters one day and informing him that a man 
by the name of Fields in the hospital had fistula and I thought 
an operation necessary. He replied: "Can't you stick a knife in 
it ?" I told him I thought I could and he came a few days after 
the operation and expressed his satisfaction at the results. He 
was promoted to a full surgency while I was there and assigned 
to a different post. It is proper here to say that the medical 
officers in the army are never addressed by their military title 
or rank but always as doctor. Although their military rank may 
be that of major (for full surgeon) or captain or lieutenant (for 
assistant surgeon). 



44 LITTLE PILLS 

General Grierson of note as a cavalry commander during the 
Civil War was in command of the camp. Our quarters consisted 
of one hospital tent, fourteen by sixteen and two wall tents ten 
by twelve for bed room and dining- room, and still back of that 
was the kitchen which was used for servants' quarters. All these 
tents were framed to hold them in shape and as a protection 
against strong winds. 

Our first experience with what was called a "Norther," was 
at this post. These usually occurred in the change of the seasons 
from cold to hot weather or the reverse. They are typical, re- 
sembling other storms only in their intensity. They are always 
preceded by delightful weather. My first experience was in the 
early spring of 1870. I was on the roof of the new commissary 
building where the quartermaster's employes were putting on 
shingles and one of them happened to look up and said, "Hello; 
that looks like a Norther coming." The weather was quite warm 
but ideally pleasant and he noticed my Hght clothing and said, 
"You had better get down off here and hunt some heavier 
clothes." I followed his suggestion at once and by the time I 
got to our quarters a half mile away I noticed the difference in 
the temperature and in a few minutes it came on us in all its 
fury. It is simply the coldest wind I have ever experienced. It 
blows straight and with a mighty force and is so penetrating that 
one is thoroughly chilled in a few minutes. I have since learned 
that it often kills cattle and other live stock down in Texas and 
occasionally people who are not properly clothed. It comes up 
from the Northwest, a bank of clouds, not clearly outlined but 
hazy, I suppose from dust that gathers on the way. Anyone who 
has once experienced it looks at its coming with dread and ap- 
prehension. We had two or three experiences with a "Norther" 
at Fort Sill while still in camp. In one of these my wife and I 
both braced ourselves against the tent frame to keep it from 
blowing down. 

There were six companies of colored troops of the Tenth 
Cavalry of which General Grierson was the colonel, stationed at 
Fort Sill. I did not see that they were very different from other 
enlisted men. If anything they seemed to take more interest in 



LITTLE PILLS 45 

their personal appearance than the white soldiers but were ac- 
cused in the army as they are out of it, of petit larceny. I had 
one experience in the hospital that may be worth relating: A 
trooper by the name of Stanley had shot the index finger off his 
right hand, he claimed accidentally, but it was thought by most 
of the officers that it had been done for the purpose of getting 
a discharge from the service. I kept him as nurse in the hospital 
as he was capable and did his work promptly and carefully and 
we often had him come to^our quarters to stay with our little boy 
when we were spending the evening with our fellow officers and 
their wives. I had frequently missed small change and little 
things of no great value but he would deny any knowledge of 
them with such apparent candor and honesty that my suspicions 
were allayed. One morning, however, when attending sick calls 
at the hospital the hospital steward informed me that Stanton 
was discovered taking money from under the pillow of one of the 
sick men during the night. I sent for him and explained the mat- 
ter to him for I was really disposed to let him off as easy as pos- 
sible. He denied any knowledge of it, so I said to him : "Now look 
here Stanton, the evidence is too strong against you, you go and 
give Fields his money and behave yourself hereafter and I will 
let the matter drop. You are a good man and I would like to 
keep you." He looked me straight in the face and said: "Fore 
God, Doctor, I never did take that money." I sent the steward's 
assistant over to the guardhouse with orders to the sergeant of 
the guard to send a man over to take charge of a prisoner. A 
corporal came and I explained .the matter to him and I directed 
him to take Stanton to the guardhouse and to tell the sergeant 
of the guard that I wanted him to get that money and for him 
to resort to any means necessary to get it, even if he had to tie 
the prisoner up by the thumbs. This is of course a very severe 
punishment, and consisted of using a very strong cord, the ends 
of which are looped over each thumb and then thrown over a 
crossbar a short distance above the prisoner's head and drawing 
him up, if necessary, off the ground. When I got through my 
hospital duties and was on my way to my quarters I heard the 
howling of the prisoner at the guardhouse and stopped where I 



46 LITTLE PILLS 

had a good view and watched the results with interest. Stanton 
was protesting his innocence, and the sergeant's orders were "pull 
him up a little higher." It did not take long for Stanton to see 
his mistake, for he said, "Let me down and I will tell you where 
it is." "No you don't. Tell me first where it is, then I will let 
you down." Stanton said, "It's in the hning of my cap." And 
sure enough there was the ten dollars. The result was that a 
courtmartial gave him six months with "ball and chain." I think 
this occurrence illustrates one of the characteristic traits of the 
colored race, and to me it is remarkable that he would have taken 
such a course when he was offered the chance of taking one that 
in every way would have been so much better for himself. 



CHAPTER V. 

Fort Sill was the first post at which I had any experience 
with Indians. It was located on what was then called the Kiowa 
and Commanche reservation near the junction of Cache and Medi- 
cine Bluff creeks. Mount Scott, the highest point of the Wichita 
mountains was some nine miles to the northwest and both places 
had been geographically located and were used as a base for 
triangulation in locating other points. These tribes of Plains 
Indinas were famous fighters and were finally subdued and 
brought to terms by Custer's great battle on the Washita. They 
were very numerous and there was always a feeling that an out- 
break might occur at any time. During my service there from Jan- 
uary, 1870, to August, 1871, there were seventeen men brought 
in and buried who had been killed and scalped by Indians. They 
would not attack a large party of men in soldier's uniform but 
boot-leggers and stragglers stood a poor show if caught out alone. 
Once while there a woman, one girl sixteen or seventeen years old, 
and one about twelve years old, and two smaller ones and two 
boys, one of whom belonged to another family, were brought into 
the camp on the promise of a hunded dollars apiece ransom. They 
were from Texas and at their homes when attacked by Indians, 
and the men were killed and these people brought away captives. 
If attempt had been made to recover them by force they would 
have been killed 

I once saw Lone Wolf, a Comanche chief, with a United 
States mail sack of leather on his pony, and the interpreter, Mr. 
Jones, told me that he and some of the other young bucks had 
been on a raid down in Texas and, among other depredations they 
had killed the mail carrier and destroyed the mail, only keeping 
the sack for his own use. I saw him frequently with it after- 
wards. Mr. Jones told me that Lone Wolf had said that his heart 
felt bettei' now, as he had avenged the death of his son who had 
been killed on one of their/ raids in Texas. These raids were of 
frequent occurrence, and there was generally some evidence of 
them in the wearing apparel or trinkets, or anything the Indians 



48 LITTLE PILLS 

might fancy, and that had evidently belonged to some settlers or 
travelers who had been so unfortunate as to come in their way. 
But so far as I know, they never killed a soldier. 

I have witnessed from the bluff near the hospital on Medicine 
Bluff creek their dances in the valley just across the streams at 
night, many times, but^' never had any desire to make a closer ac- 
quaintance. It always seemed to me a wild kind of a thing, 
consisting of jumping and gyratting and stooping and gliding 
and then straightening up suddenly, and swinging the arms, and 
all the time droning in short jerky cough-like notes, interspersed 
with sharp penetrating yells. There might be only one performer 
or maybe a half dozen or more. Where there is a number en- 
gaged, it is not only exciting but decidedly wild, certainly unlike 
any other dance I have ever seen. 

They were great thieves and anything left outside of our 
tents which might strike their fancy was liable to be carried 
off. One day a squaw brought a venison ham to our tent to sell. 
The regular price was fifty cents and I bought it although we had 
bought one less than an, hour before, and when taking it back to 
hang up with the first one I thought the squaw looked very much 
like the one from whom I had made the first purchase, and was 
not much surprised to find the first ham missing. We usually 
hung them out for a while to get the Indian odor off them, and 
I have no doubt that I bought the^same ham from the same squaw 
the second time. 

There were fixed days each month on which rations were is- 
sued to the Indians by the commissary department and I have 
seen the squaws carry sacks of flour a little distance away from 
the place of issue and empty out the flour and carry off 
the sacks, hundreds of them, so that the ground for a consider- 
ably distance around would be literally white with flour. 

They were permitted to go about the camp any where during 
the day, but at sundown scarcely an Indian was to be seen and 
none were permitted in camp at night. 

It was a very comfortable feeling to hear the hours called 
at night, by those on guard if one should happen to wake up 
and hear the announcement that "All's well." For instance, the 



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LITTLE PILLS 49 

sergeant of the guard announces in a loud enough voice to be 
heard by the first sentinel, "Two o'clock and all's well." On 
hearing it the sentinel repeats the message, and so on around 
the camp, and when the last sentinel has finished, the sergant 
of the guard says, "Two o'clock and all's well all around." This is 
repeated each hour during the night. 

A very different announcement is the long roll of the drums 
which happened twice while we were at this camp. It is the 
alarm to awaken the camp, and made by rapid and long continued 
beating of the drum without break or stop until the garrison is 
fully aroused. The assembly call by the bugle of the cavalry, 
takes the place of the long roll of the drum for the infantry, and 
the two together, and the clanking of arms, and the orders to 
"Fall in," "Fall in," "Fall in," makes an exceedingly interesting, 
not to say exciting experience. If you are quick in getting out 
of your tent you may see the officers scurrying across the 
parade ground to their command, fastening on their clothes as 
they go and soon everything is in order for whatever may happen. 
The women and children in these cases, hurry with all possible 
speed, to a place of safety. At this camp it was always at Major 
Van De Weile's quarters, some of them very scantily clothed, 
generally with some kind of wrap over their night clothes, but it 
was not cold weather, and any way what did it signify in such 
an emergency. The major's quarters were what was called a 
"hakel" building and the only one in camp better than a tent 
except General Grierson's that offered any protection. Such 
buildings are made by standing posts on end in the ground and 
as close together as possible and filling in the cracks with mortar 
and pieces of boards or anything suitable, and the inside is then 
plastered up along the cracks until it makes a fairly smooth wall 
and is then whitewashed and makes comfortable quarters but not 
a first class protection against rifle bullets. They would huddle 
together and talk in undertones as to what might happen until 
the report came that it was a false alarm. In both these instances 
it proved to be so, but the anxiety and excitement was just as 
real as if the results had been different. Probably some nervous 
sentinel had fired his gun at what he supposed to be an Indian 



50 LITTLE PILLS 

crawling toward him, but that may have been only a dog or some 
other animal, or it may have been purely his imagination. Any 
one who has not gone through such an experience cannot imagine 
its uncanny quality as the Scotch would express it. It is a very 
vivid impression with me today after more than forty years. 

We remained under more or less strain of anxiety until the 
new quarters were finished or enough of it so that we could 
crowd into them. Officers take quarters according to rank, and 
it not infrequently happens that one will have to vacate his 
quarters and give place to another who outranks him, the rank- 
ing officer having this right and as a rule he does not hesitate 
to use it although he may be a single man and the man displaced 
be a man of family. This is so well understood and so graciously 
accepted that there is seldom any feeling or resentment about it. 

In our own case we had to occupy quarters with another of- 
ficer and his wife, Mr. Spencer of the Tenth cavalry, and this 
reminds me of an experience we had that shows something of 
the Indian character. We had for some time previous to this, a 
Cherokee Indian woman, employed as servant. She probably had 
a little negro blood in her veins as her long black hair was slight- 
ly wavy, but in every other way she was typically Indian. She 
was exceedingly neat and clean and a thorough housekeeper and 
an exceptionally good cook and a most devoted servant, but she 
would take orders from no one except my wife. Soon after going 
into our new quarters she informed my wife that she was going 
to leave us, and this she did, knowing full well that she could not 
remain at the post if she did ss. My wife was surprised and so 
expressed herself and also her sorrow at having her go, but no 
inducement she could offer had any effect on this high-strung 
woman. She cleaned out the stove and put in the kindling and 
had everything neat and clean as possible before leaving. It de- 
veloped afterwards that she was offended at some orders given 
her by Mrs. Spencer. 

Another little incident will show the Indian blood: One of 
the colored sergeants took quite a fancy to her and would often 
stand in the door and talk to her, which was all well enongh with 
Charlotte until she wanted him to go. I think on this occasion 



LITTLE PILLS 51 

he was disposd to nag- her about something, for I overheard her 
say in a loud and ang-ry tone, "Now you go, I won't talk to you 
again. Go now!" I hurried to the kitchen and opened the door 
just in time to see the butcherknife sticking in the outside door- 
jam and still vibrating from the force that sent it. The sergeant 
had jumped in time, but Charlotte was furious. When I asked, 
"Why, Charlotte, what is the matter?" she simply replied, "Next 
time I tell that nigger to go I guess he will go." I frequently 
though how near we came to having another patient in the 
hospital. 

I will relate one or two other instances that occurred while 
we were stationed here that may be interesting: My wife had 
the only sewing machine in the camp and one day Satana, the 
war chief of the Kiowas, was passing down the line of officers' 
quarters and heard the 'hum of the sewing machine. It was 
summer time and the door was open so he stalked in and sat 
down without any ceremony or sign of recognition and watched 
my wife sewing. He was evidently very much interested but 
gave no evidence of it by word or look. He remained for quite a 
while observing the performance intently and then got up and 
said, "Adois!" and stalked out again. He made several calls 
afterwards and went through the same performance each time 
until I suppose he became satisfied for his visits ceased. He was 
the finest specimen of an Ijndian I ever saw; very large, well 
proportioned, with a remarkably forceful expression of face and 
walked with a dignity becoming a prince. 

Adjacent to the sutler's store was a large corral enclosed by 
a high stockade, inside of which were the necessary buildings 
for storage, stables, etc., and near the front of this corral and 
on a line with the store was the houses for the clerks, a few 
feet back from the stockade. In front of each house was a small 
gate which was always closed at night but often kept open during 
the day. In the summer the front doors were also left open. One 
day a tall, rather handsome Indian, that I had often noticed about 
the camp, and who was something of a "dandy" in dress, hap- 
pened to be passing and happened to catch his reflection in a 
large mirror on the dresser that stood in line with the door and 



52 LITTLE PILLS 

gate. He immediately marched in without looking right or left, 
made a thorough survey of himself in the glass then turned and 
walked out saying "How" to Mrs. Rector, who was sitting in the 
room during this rather unceremonious call. 

I had a little experience one day with Stumbling Bear, a 
subchief of the Kiowas that at that time made me a little nervous 
and I have since thought with little reason. I was returning from 
a duck hunt up Medicine Bluff creek and was a short distance 
above the bluff that gave it its name when Stumbling Bear came 
up behind me, and we talked a little and I offered him some ducks 
which he took, and soon rode ahead. I knew of a little canon 
that broke its way down to the stream a little distance ahead 
and across which the trail must lead. For some reason which I 
cannot explain, I thought it best to wait until he came up on 
the other side of the canon. This canon opened out into the river 
valley and from my position I could see the valley thoroughly. He 
did not come upon the opposite side as I expected, and I felt 
equally sure that he did not go down the canon and come out in 
the valley. He had his rifle with him and of course could have 
killed me as he came up behind, if he had wished to do so, but I 
was nervous about him not showing up on the opposite side of 
the canon, and so I concluded to make a detour around theh ead 
of the canon and out of gunshot range, and went on my way to 
camp. That he could have gotten out of there without my seeing 
him still seems to me impossible, and why he should stay in there 
until I had gone seems equally unaccountable. Any way I did 
not see him again for several days when he rode into camp as 
usual. 

The Indian agency was located just outside the military res- 
ervation, some five or six miles down the creek from the fort. 
Colonel Boone, a nephew of Daniel Boone of frontier fame, was 
Indian, agent when we arrived at the camp but was succeeded 
the following spring by an appointee under a new ruling of the 
Interior Department. Colonel Boone was a very large man and 
his wife was quite below the average sized woman. I mention 
him here only because we were mutual friends, but also of at 
least one commendable trait of Indian character that is illustrated 



LITTLE PILLS 53 

by their journey back to their ranch in Colorado. The colonel 
had decided, much against our protestations of the dangers, to 
go across the country, which to us seemed to be wilfully sacrific- 
ing their lives; but he insisted that he would send up to 
the chief of the Arapahoes, whose name I have forgotten, and if 
he thought it fairly safe and would send an escort, he certainly 
would take the chances. 

The escort came in a few days and they were certainly a 
fine looking lot of fellows, being extra well mounted and equipped 
and I felt sure that they would give a good account of them- 
selves in case of trouble and the colonel assured us that the last 
one of them would die in defense of himself and wife if neces- 
sary. So, we said bood-bye to them with some misgivings, but 
with a strong hope that they would make the journey safely. I 
got a letter from the colonel some months later announcing their 
safe arrival home, and praising the fidelity and other good quali- 
ties of his Indian escort. It was refreshing to hear and know 
something good of Indians that had so much that was bad to their 
credit. 

I am quite convinced that any Indian appreciates justice and 
a square deal as much as we do, and recognizes force and sub- 
mits to it quickly enough, if tempered with justice, but he does 
not understand moral suasion as we understand it. I think that 
his conception of it is cowardice. He cannot comprehend why 
one should return good for evil but believes in an eye for an eye 
and he faithfully carries it out in practice. He believes in all 
kinds of ghosts and spirits, good and bad, and his life is largely 
shaped by this belief. 

A story Mr. Jones told me one day will illustrate their prac- 
tical view of things : Mr. Jones had married a squaw and some of 
the chiefs were at his house for dinner that day. He tried to 
explain to them our Bible history of how sin came into the world, 
and they listened intently, and without interruption, until he 
had finished. Then one old chief spoke up aid said, 'That is just 
like a white woman. Now if that had been a squaw, she would 
have taken a stick and killed that snake, and saved all the 
trouble." And while it may sound funny it was not intended as 



54 LITTLE PILLS 

levity or anything like a joke, but was said in all seriousness. He 
evidently did not grasp our interpretation of it in any way, but 
on the contrary he looked on the woman's actions as cowardly 
and inexcusable. 



CHAPTER IV. 

During General Grant's first term as President, the Indian 
agencies were put in the hands of the representatives of the fol- 
lowing churches, namely: Congregational, Presbyterian, Catho- 
lic, Dutch Reform, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, and 
the two branches of Friends. This was brought about by a reso- 
lution on January 13th, 1871 at a conference of the President, 
the board of Indian commissioners and the official representatives 
of the religious bodies above mentioned. This was considered 
at the time as the President's policy and was something of a 
surprise to many army officers. But there was no marked criti- 
cism, most of them believing that if the management of Indian 
affairs could not be in the hands of the war department, it 
w^ould have as good a chance of being honestly managd by rep- 
resentatives of the churches as in any other way. 

The Kiowa and Commanche agency was put in the hands 
of a Mr. Tatum, a Quaker and most estimable gentleman, but 
I afterwards thought he as illy understood the Indian character 
as the Indians did the peace loving creed of the Quaker per- 
suasiop. He was unfortunate in being found in his shirt sleeves 
and at work, when the first delegation of the Indian chiefs went 
to the agency to see him, and from that time was spoken of by 
the Indians as the squaw agent. They could see nothing elevat- 
ing or even respectable in a man working, that being the squaw's 
duties, and had little respect for the agent afterwards, although 
he did the best he could for them. 

Mr. Tatum thought it would be better for the Indians to live 
in houses like white people, instead of in tents, and proposed 
building them houses, and some of the chiefs agreed to occupy 
them. He ,at once got busy and built six or seven neat log 
houses in the timber a few miles north of the camp. The Indians 
moved in as they had agreed and it was reported that some of 
them put their tepees up inside the houses. Of course they did 
not Stay long in such an unnatural place, and when I saw the 



56 LITTLE PILLS 

houses some time afterwards, there was no evidence of recent 
occupation. 

He also established a school for Indian children at the agency, 
and I think it was patronized by some of the Indians sending 
their children, but up until the time we left the post, the at- 
tendance was small. We cannot tell what the eventual results of 
these honest efforts to do go may be. 

One of the most interesting places about the camp to me 
was Mr. Orleman's office. He was a West Point graduate, a 
lieutenant in one of the companies at the camp, and was the 
engineer under Major Rockwell, who had charge of the con- 
struction of the new post. Maybe my everlasting desire to know 
things interested him, for he was very kind in showing me his 
instruments and explaining their uses. I was a frequent caller 
at his office and he always seemed glad to see me. I mention 
this more particularly from the fact that in the spring of 1871 
there wias a part of the garrison, I think two troops of cavalry 
sent to establish a camp on or near the junction of Cache creek 
and Red river, and I was ordered to make a survey of the route 
and distance. I had never done such a thing and was more than 
doubtful of my ability to do it properly, so I went to see Mr. 
Orleman about it. He said, *'0h, you can do it as well as any- 
body. I have explained these instruments, and how to use them ; 
of course you can do it." And that settled it. It was simple 
enough after all. A meter is fastened to the hub and spoke 
of one of the rear wheels of the ambulance, the hand pointing 
down and with a weight qn the end of it to hold it steady over 
rough ground. A clockwork inside records the revolutions of the 
wheel. In other words, the clock goes around instead of the 
hand, and by knowing the circumference of the wheel it is easy 
then to calculate the distance traveled. The compass and 
tripods were not so easy, but a little practice before starting gave 
me some confidence. The zig-zag course we had to take to get 
around the head of the canons and to avoid rough ground where 
the ambulance could not go, were the principal difficulties, but 
by recording the degrees of each cange of direction one gets 
fairly good results. Mr. Orleman came down some time after we 



LITTLE PILLS 57 

had established tht camp, a,nd corrected the survey by triangu- 
lation, and complimented me on missing the location less than 
one-fourth of a mile in a distance of more than forty-five miles 
traveled. 

From this camp I was ordered to make a topographical sur- 
vey to the junction of the North fork of the Red river with the 
main stream, a distance of about one hundred miles by the route 
we took along the river. Mr. Spencer with a detachment of 
about thirty troopers was sent with me as an escort. This 
kind of survey did not pretend to be accurate but was intended to 
observe and record the principal features of the country, such 
as canons, high points of land, valleys and table lands, and to 
estimate the altitudes and distance. The compass was the only 
instrument used on this trip. We arrived at our destination 
about the middle of the forenoon of the third day and crossed 
the North fork and went into camp at the junction of the two 
streams. There was a,n immense cotton wood tree just on the 
bank where the two streams united and we conceived the idea 
of marking our nam^s and date on it, supposing that we might 
be the first white people in that locality. After the work was 
done I suggested that we have a picket pin heated and burn the 
letters to keep them from healing over so soon, but we discov- 
ered there were no matches in the command to start a fire, a 
piece of carelessness that we thought inexcusable. It occurred 
to me that the medical panniers are always provided with 
matches and on investigation I found a little box of wax 
matches and we soon had a fire started. When we had seared 
the letters over thoroughly we were quite pleased with the re- 
sult and if that tree is still standing it will probably show some 
marks of the vandal hands that scarred its magnificent body. 
I remember the dinner that day among other good dinners that 
I have had on my hunting trips. We had buffalo hump and I 
thought it at that time the best thing I had ever tasted. 

The country from our camp at the mouth of Cache creek 
to the junction of North fork and the main sream of Red river 
is made up mostly of wide valleys and high table lands called 
mesa in Spanish. These vary in extent from a mile or less to 



58 LITTLE PILLS 

several miles and near the river the country is broken up by- 
frequent canoins. It was a beautiful country to look at but it 
was, of course, entirely uninhabited except by prairie dogs and 
wild game and buffalo were plentiful, and I recall one bunch of 
wild horses. 

We came on them unawares, going up from a wide valley 
to a mesa or table land, and they were grazing some three or 
four hundred yards from the edge of the mesa. It was astonish- 
ing how quickly they were bunched up, the colts in the middle, 
the mares on the flanks and the stallions in the lead, going 
full speed to get away. When we came to the edge of the mesa 
again they had crossed a wide valley and were going up on an- 
ther mesa several miles away still at full speed. They were 
a beautiful bunch of animals, a reddish roan in color, long tails 
and manes, and in size much larger than the Indian ponies, but 
were of a pony build and smaller than our best roadsters. 

Prairie dog villages were numerous. We went through one 
that must have been four or five miless in extent. 

We had an early dinner that day, and concluded to start 
on our return march, and about five o'clock in the evening we 
came to a pretty little valley with numerous water holes and 
some dead timber and went into camp. 

I took my shotgun and was having some good sport with 
the ducks wh^n Mr. Spencer's orderly came to me and said, 
"the lieutenant's compliments and he would like some matches to 
start a fire." I replied, 'give the lieutenant my compliments 
and tell him I) gave the matches to the trooper to start a fire to 
heat the picket pins, and have not seen them since." When 
I returned to camp and was within hearing distance I saw two 
men riding away and heard Mr. Spencer hallow and say, "Cor- 
poral, it will be about midnight when you get back, and we will 
have a bonfire on the hill for you as a guide to our camp." 
When I got close enough I said, "Spencer, how are you going to 
get a fire?" and then it dawned on him that we had no 
matches. "My God," h said, "I never thought of that." But the 
men had gone at full gallop and we let them go. I thought of 



LITTLE PILLS 59 

the powder I used in my shotgun and thought I would try an 
experiment. That was when muzzle loaders were still in vogue, 
the breechloader not having come into general use, and I cut 
a hole in the lining of my coat where it was padded about the 
shoulders and took out some cotton wadding which I tamped 
lightly down on the powder in the gun. At first I had too 
much powder and it would not work but after a few trials the 
wadding caught fire and with some dry sticks for kindling we 
soon had a fire under way and Mr. Spencer had his bonfire on 
the hill that night. The corporal and the careless troopers who 
had left the matches at our midday camp returned before mid- 
night having made the round trip of about twenty-eight miles 
for a little box of matches. 

The following day was uneventful until toward night. Some 
troopers who had permission were out hunting. We had heard 
a shot occasionally but attached no importance to it, but late in 
the afternoon an Indian or two were seen off on the hills to the 
north and in a little while they became numerous enough to 
create some apprehension. It developed that one of the fool 
troopers had taken a shot at one of them, but fortunately had 
missed him and by nightfall there were great numbers of them 
in sight. 

We soon found a little water hole and went into camp and 
made the b^st preparation we could for trouble if it came. We 
got everything close about the water supply and the horses 
lariated close around us and awaited results. Soon the advance 
guard of the Ipdians appeared in perfect alignment silhouetted 
against the western sky and Mr. Spencer with two men went 
out to meet them. Explanations and apologies followed, but 
before the parley was over they informed Mr. Spencer that if 
they had found us to have been soldiers from Texas they in- 
tended to make a clean sweep of it, but as we were from Fort 
Sill they wanted to be friends. I have often thought it was for- 
tunate for us that we were from Fort Sill, as they outnumbered 
us twenty or more to one. We waited a half hour or more after 
they had gone and then quietly mounted and rode away, not a 
man saying a word until we felt that we were out of danger. 



60 LITTLE PILLS 

We camped again about midnight and saw no more of the In- 
dians. 

The following morning I had taken my gun and gone ahead 
a mile or so and came down off the mesa and found a pony in 
the valley below. I rode up to it and tried to catch it but it would 
not allow me to get close enough. I then waited until the com- 
mand came up. The column marching in twos separated at the 
order right and left oblique march and made a V shape that 
surrounded the pony and we took him along with us. We soon 
came to the trail where the Indians had crossed, a very wide one, 
showing that great numbers had passed. There were other 
evidences of their having been on a raid in Texas; some bed 
ticking and feathers, some pieces of clothing, evidently taken 
from some settler whom they had probably murdered and scalp- 
ed. The pony had a sore back and had evidently been abandoned 
as useless and a hindrance on their march. 

Although it was a long day's march we concluded to try and 
make the camp at Cache creek that night, which we did, getting 
in very late. We had come by compass directly across country 
from the junctipn of the two forks of Red river instead of follow- 
ing the stream as we did going up. 

We captured a young antelope, the last day out, and one of 
the troopers carried it on the saddle in front of him into camp. 
It lived until we were back at Fort Sill some time, but that kind 
of life was too hard for it and it gave up the struggle. 

There was plenty of game in the country around the camp 
at Cache creek. Turkeys were very abundant and duck shooting 
was good in season, and the fishing was fine. I have always re- 
gretted my impulsive disposition when thinking of my first shot 
at turkeys near this camp. When the command was nearing the 
mouth of Cache creek from Fort Sill, I had taken my last ob- 
servation with the compass and directed the ambulance driver to 
a point indicated, and went ahead of the command to select the 
camp. Having decided on a desirable place I went down stream 
a little distance and heard some turkeys making a great ado 
about something. I got down on a sand bar and slipped along 
the river bank until I thought I was at the right place for a shot. 



LITTLE PILLS 61 

On looking over the bank I discovered that there was quite a 
bunch of turkeys standing around in a circle and making a great 
chatter. I fired into them without waiting to see what caused 
such a commotion, and when I was near where two of them lay 
an immense diamond rattler uncoiled and glided away. What 
would have happened if I had waited? Would the turkeys have 
killed the snake, or the snake some of the turkeys, or would the 
turkeys have gotten tired of the game and quit? I have often 
asked myself these questions. Does anybody know? If so I 
would like to hear their comment. While in that camp we killed 
two diamond rattlers, one six feet and the other six feet, four 
inches in length. It may be that one of them was among my 
first acquaintances in that camp. 

There was a turkey roost some three mies above camp where 
we generally got our supply of turkeys. A young son of General 
Grierson, having returned from school for his summer vacation, 
came down to our camp, and was enthusiastic for a visit to the 
turkey roost, so we arranged to go the following evening, and 
got permission to take a couple of troop horses for the purpose, 
a thing not provided for in the regulations. When we had 
reached the timber we left the trail and hunted for a secure place 
to tie our horses, as dense a thicket as we could find. We found 
a place where we thought they would be secure and from there 
walked to the roost, a short distance away, and sat down and 
waited for the birds to come in^ We did not have long to wait 
until we could hear the sound of wings, and they commenced 
lighting in the tree tops above us. We waited until they were 
well settled before shooting. It had been a warm day and by 
this time was murky and getting quite dark, and we had diffi- 
culty in marking our birds, but we soon had four handsome ones 
and gathered them up and started to find our horses. I was 
confident I had observed closely the directions and distance we 
had gone from the trail and also from the horses to the roost, but 
we failed to find them where we expected. It was pitch dark by 
this time and very still and we tramped the neighborhood where 
we thought we had left them, and then sat down and waited, 
hoping they might neigh or make some noise and thus guide us 



62 LITTLE PILLS 

to them. When this failed we went to the trail and by lighting 
matches found where we had left it, and from there we followed 
the course that we thought would take us to the thicket where 
we had left the horses. We found it, or thought we had, and 
tramped it over toroughly without finding them. We carried our 
guns and turkeys with us, not daring to put them down for fear 
we would lose them. We finally concluded some thieving Indians 
had watched us and had followed us into the timber and stolen 
our horses, and so we started for the camp on foot. It was a 
hot, sultry night and I soon began to think three turkeys and a 
shotgun a good deal of a load and when I inquired of my com- 
panion how he was making it he admitted that he v/as getting 
a little tired. We rested a little bit and started again, I having 
taken his bird, much against his protest, and by frequent rests 
on the way we got into camp between ten and eleven o'clock, a 
very tired pair of hunters. I sent for the sargeant of the guard 
and told him I wished to be awakened at four o'clock in the morn- 
ing. The young lad insisted that he would go with me but I told 
him no, that he was too tired and had better sleep and that I 
could get the horses if they were there. At four o'clock, how- 
ever, he was up as quick as I was and we were soon on the way 
afoot to the turkey roost. We found the horses just where we 
had tied them and I felt greatly relieved, not only because it 
saved me the price of two valuable horses but because it saved the 
captain of the company who loaned them, as well as myself, a 
severe reprimand. I came to have a great admiration for the 
pluck and manliness of my young hunter friend, and if he is an 
officer in the service now, as many of the sons of my army ac- 
quaintances are, and he should ever see this story of army life 
on the frontier, I wish here and now to present him my compli- 
ments, and would like to hear from him. 

We had an abundance of fish while at this camp. The quar- 
termaster had built us a little boat so we could stretch trotlines 
across the stream and we not only had the officers' mess well 
supplied but often had plenty for the men of the command. 

A few days after we had returned from the North fork or 
Red river. Captain Norvel's troop of cavalry was ordered out on 



LITTLE PILLS 63 

a scout down the valley on the north side of the river, and I was 
ordered to accompany the command. We started late in the 
afternoon and by evening it commenced a drizzling rain. We 
went into camp about dark but did not unwrap our blankets as 
expected to be out some days and did not wish them to get wet. 
The blankets in a scout like this are made into a roll and wrapped 
in a poncho or oil cloth covering and fastened up against the 
cantle of the saddle by straps which are always a part of the 
equipment of the army saddle. The captain and I placed our 
rolls of blankets at the foot of a big tree and with our water- 
proof to protect us against the rain, sat down on them until the 
shower should be over. It never let up raining during the whole 
night, and there we sat dozing and talking by spells until morn- 
ing. Soon after daylight a messenger arrived with orders to re- 
turn to camp. 

We found nearly everything ready for the return trip to 
Fort Sill and were soon on the way. We had already heard that 
General Sherman and staff, Colonels Marcey, Audenried and 
Tourtellotte, were there on an inspection trip of the military 
posts of the west. They had come by way of Texas and were 
fully informed of the doings of the large band of Indians with 
whom we had our little pow-wow and whose horse we had cap- 
tured, and whose trail we had crossed on our return from the 
north fork of Red river to the camp on Cache creek. They had 
also learned that they came very near being in line with the 
depradations committed. This band had not only burned houses 
and killed settlers but had also captured a government wagon 
train and had tied the teamster to the wagon and having looted 
the train of all they wanted, burned the teamsters with the 
wagons and contents. The young bucks on their return to the 
reservation, and feeling secure at Fort Sill had bragged about it. 
The names of the leaders in the raid were known and the matter 
could not be overlooked by General Grierson, but he was power- 
less without the authority of Mr. Tatum, the Indian agent. This 
always struck me as a ridiculous phase of our Indian policy. 

It was a universal feeling in the army that the war depart- 
ment should have the exclusive control and management of the 



64 LITTLE PILLS 

Indian problems, instead of the interior department, but I sup- 
pose politics, the bane of the country in so many ways, ruled in 
Washington then as it does now, and it was to the interests of 
the politicians to have it where it was. General Grant was at 
this time President and had served as a young army officer on 
the frontier and knew better. The Republicans were in control 
of congress but it would have been the same with any other 
political party in control, and was probably the worst that could 
have been done. Mr. Tatum was fully informed of the raid and 
the leaders in it, and called for a pow-wow at General Grierson's 
quarters. A number of Indian chiefs came in to talk the matter 
over, among them being Satanta, the war chief of the Kiowas; 
Big Tree, a young chief of the same tribe, and Satank, an old 
and wizzened up and vicious looking Indian, and council chief 
among the Kiowas; all known to have been in the raid. There 
was a heavy guard standing around the quarters ready for any 
emergency. Mr. Tatum had demanded the surrender of the 
guilty parties. While the pow-wow was in progress Lone Wolf, 
chief of the Comanches, came among them, a rifle in each hand, 
and a couple of bows and a quiver full of arrows swung over his 
back. I suppose it was a pre-concerted arrangement among the 
Indians for he handed one gun to an Indian near him, and a 
couple of Indians behind him grabbed the bows and arrows and 
in an instant these were pointed at the breast of Mr. Tatum, 
General Grierson, General Sherman, and other officers present. 
I suppose the click, click, click of the rifles as the guard cocked 
and brought them to shoulder, gave Lone Wolf a better under- 
standing of the bloody work at hand, for he raised one hand and 
said 'No shoot! No shoot!" and by the interpreter explained 
that it was only a joke and that he did not intend to hurt any- 
body. Tht interpreter reported afterwards that he had also said 
when presenting these guns to the breasts of those men men- 
tioned, "Now let these men go and we can fix things up all 
right." During the excitement Big Tree broke away from the 
crowd and mounted a horse near by, and tried to escape but the 
garrison was wide awake to the condition of things, and after a 
shot or two he surrendered. He and Satanta and Satank were 



LITTLE PILLS 65 

put in the guard-house, a newly built one at the new post, and a 
strong guard placed about the building, until they were removed 
to Texas to be tried by the civil authorities. 

We arrived at Fort Sill from our camp on Cache creek a day 
or two after these occurrences but I got the details of the inci- 
dent from officers present and from my wife who remembers 
them better than I do. Promptly after the depredations had been 
committeed General Mackenzie of the Department of Texas with 
several troops of cavalry got on the trail of these Indians and had 
followed it up into the territory and into the Wichita mountains 
and from there to Fort Sill and arrived at the post shortly after 
our return from camp. 

After resting his troops for a few days General Mackenzie 
was ready for the march back to Texas with his prisoners. Quite 
a number of officers were present to witness their departure. I 
was standing next to Mr. Jones, the interpreter, when they were 
brought out of the guard-house, all hand-cuffed, and all in the 
usual blanket attire of the Indians. When old Satank appeared 
he set up the most weird and doleful sing-song wail I ever heard, 
and his face I thought was not so vicious looking as usual, but 
was more solemn and maybe with a trace of sadness in it. I 
asked Mr. Jones what it meant, and he replied in an undertone, 
"It means he ain't going far." 

Satanta and Big Tree were placed in one wagon with guards 
sitting behind them and Satank in another wagon with one of 
the sergeants sitting beside him and guards behind and when the 
columns were formed troopers rode alongside the wagons and in 
this formation they left the post. When in the valley south 
of the post and probably a couple of miles away we heard the 
report of firearmsi from that direction. Soon a messenger ar- 
rived with the compliments of General Mackenzie and requested 
that an ambulance be sent for a trooper who had been wounded. 
He also gave the essential particulars of what occurred. It 
seems that by some means unknown, Satank had a knife hidden 
about his person somewhere and although hand-cuffed had got 
possession of it and stabbed the sergeant sitting next to him 
and then grabbed the sergeant's gun and shot the teamster. 



m 



66 LITTLE PILLS 

The sergeant's wound was only slight and he went forward with 
the command, but the teamster was shot through one side of 
the neck and fell from his saddle and was brought back to the 
post hospital for treatment. It proved to be only a deep flesh 
wound and he was soon discharged from the hospital, and re- 
turned to his own command. When the guards realized the state 
of affairs they made short work of it, and Satank was laid by 
the roadside and General Grierson sent a squad of soldiers and 
buried him there in his blankets. It was his death song that 
had so impressed me as they brought him from the guard-house. 
Satanta and Big Tree were tried and convicted in Texas and 
sentenced to the penitentiary for life. It was reported in the 
papers some years afterwards that Satanta jumped out of a 
window at the prison and killed himself and it was rumored that 
Big Tree had hung himself, but so far as I know this was not 
confirmed. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The first time I saw General Sherman was at Rome, Georgia, 
during the Civil war. I was in the field hospital there at that 
time and was in the dispensary one day when my attention was 
called to some military procession on the street. It turned out 
to be only General Sherman and his staff, the general riding 
alone in front, his orderly a few yards behind, and a few yards 
farther back the general staff officers. The procession, if it 
could be so called, impressed me; first the isolated position of 
the commanding officer. I thought of pictures I had seen of 
Napoleon, always alone, and while I could not see the general's 
face to advantage, for he looked neither to the right or left, I 
thought him a stern, unbending, self -centered, iron-hearted mil- 
itary despot, without sentiment or generous impulse. I saw him 
often thereafter, for I was with his command from "Atlanta to 
the Sea" and up through the Carolinas, and he was always 
alone on horse-back and in the order mentioned. I never saw 
him in company with anybody. Fhad occasion to change my 
impression regarding him somewhat at the battle of Bentonville. 
We had marched all night to reach the battlefield in time to take 
part in the engagement, and arrived on the ground early in the 
afternoon. As it happened, we stopped near the general's head- 
quarters. The battle was in progress and as we could i:ot go 
into the trenches until night, 1 had a good opportunity of ob- 
serving him during the afternoon. He was walking back and 
forth along a space of ground a hundred feet or more in extent 
and when there was a lull in the firing he would slow up to a 
very moderate walk, but when it became heavy his pace would 
increase and when it became a roar, as it did several times in the 
afternoon, he would go at great strides back and forth, back and 
forth, until it would again quiet down, when he would slow up 
in harmony with the lull in the battle. From this I learned that 
he was at least impressionable. Officers would arrive from dif- 
ferent parts of the field and report, and instantly receive orders 
and return at full speed as they came. 



68 LITTLE PILLS 

From that time I never saw him until at Fort Sill at a 
*'hop" given by Colonel Carpenter in his new quarters at the 
post. Here I had to again change my impression of the general. 
He was one of the most cordial of men; he seemed to know 
everybody, and I was told seldom forgot a name or a face. He 
had the remarkable gift of making everyone feel that he was 
an old acquaintance, and he entered into the amusements of the 
evening, mostly dancing, with zest, and after supper went with 
the officers to the front porch to smoke and talk. He ridiculed 
the idea of being a candidate for the presidency, saying he did 
not possess the temperament or disposition that seemed neces- 
sary to qualify one for holding an office where there were so 
many adverse interests to consider, and where they were so fre- 
quently presented from questionable motives, but as far as I re- 
member he admitted no preference for political parties. How- 
ever, he did express a desire to pass his old age in a quiet way, 
and free from political strife. He left the crowd on the porch 
before all were through smoking, and joined the ladies with 
whom he seemed to enjoy himself as much or more than with 
the men. I though him a rather awkward dancer but he took 
part with apparent enthusiasm. 

After General Sherman and his party had left the post the 
feeling of uneasiness increased in the camp, and General Grier- 
son ordered the remaining officers into the new post which was 
being built. It fell to our lot to be quartered with Mr. Spencer 
and wife and except for losing a good servant we found it a pleas- 
ant change, and were relieved of all apprehension regarding 
Indians. 

There was a band-stand in the center of the parade ground 
and the Tenth Cavalry band was an excellent one, and in the 
summer evenings when retreat had been sounded by the buglers 
and the signal gun fired "just as the sun went down," the band 
struck up and gave us very delightful music for an hour or so. 
At such times the families of the officers would be sitting on the 
front porches of their quarters or visiting with others and chat- 
ting and listening to the music. 



LITTLE PILLS 69 

The bugle calls at the army posts were always interesting 
to me, and seemed to convey the idea intended almost as well 
as words. A number of them have words set to the music, if 
it can be so called, as 'Give your horses some corn and some 
hay"' for stable call, and "Take your quinine" for sick call. 
Reveille had a rousing, get-up quality about it. Sick call was 
for those who had only slight ailments and were treated at the 
hospital and returned to duty, or if found to be something 
serious enough, were sent to one of the wards in the hospital for 
treatment. Maybe a so-called bilious condition or a scratch on 
the hand, or if a colored soldier a "misery," or he was "powerful 
weak." There were not many maligners, and they were soon 
detected. In the cavalry drill there are many bugle calls for 
the different evolutions. The bugler rides near the commanding 
officer and receives the orders and transmits them by bugle to 
the command. Of all the bugle calls in the service "Taps" the 
last call at night, affected me most. It has all the quality of our 
good-bye or goodnight, but to me it had much more. To me our 
good-bye conveys only the idea of separation, and I like the 
Spanish word 'Adios" much better. It not only conveys the idea 
of separation but also the sentiment "God be with you" and so 
"Taps'" always impressed me "Good-night,, and God be with 
you,' and as the last prolonged note died away the lights went 
out and everything was still. This did not apply to the officers 
when at the post, and they and their families could enjoy them- 
selves in their own way, and could put out their lights early 
or late. 

Toward the latter part of June, 1871 a command came up 
from the Department of Texas on its way to the military posts 
in Kansas. The medical officer accompanying it returned from 
Fort Sill to his own department and post, and I was ordered to 
accompany the command to Kansas. My recollection is that 
there were three companies. In this command were two young 
officers, lieutenants, not long out of West Point, who proved 
very charming companions. One was a Mr. Reese from Ken- 
tucky and the other was a Mr. Parker from Connecticut, a son 



70 LITTLE PILLS 

of the maker of the famous Parker shotgun, generally thought 
to be the best to be had in those days. 

The first thing of special interest on this march was when 
we had gone into camp about sixty miles north of Fort Sill, 
which was the second day out. This was about four o'clock in 
the afternoon, to give the horses and transportation mules a 
chance to graze. I happened to look back in the direction of our 
march and saw a small black object far in the distance that I 
could not make out. I borrowed field glasses of one of the 
captains and discovered it to be a horse and buggy. I became 
quite curious about it, as I did not think any sane man would 
travel through that Indian country alone for any consideration. 
I would not have done so for all the money in the mint unless in 
military dress. He came directly to our camp and I walked out 
to meet him. He proved to be Father Poncelona of Osage Mis- 
sion, now St. Paul, Kansas, who had been down to Fort Sill to 
baptise the children and give what comfort he could to the fol- 
lowers of his faith at that post. He was very tired for he had 
started before daylight, and had driven all day hoping to find 
our camp somewhere, but he did not know where. I took him to 
my tent and insisted on him lying down on my cot, which he did 
under protest, and P brought him some brandy which he drank 
with seeming relish, and by the time dinner was ready he was 
ready to join us. I asked him how he came to take such chances 
alone. He said it was part of his work and that there was a 
higher power (pointing his finger upwards) that would take care 
of those who were doing God's service. He was past middle 
age and had spent most of his life since taking orders as a mis- 
sionary among the Indians. He had a benign faith-abiding ex- 
pression of face, such as I have never seen on any other man, 
and his voice was low and musical, and his manner most win- 
ning. I had some difficulty in geting him to take my cot for the 
night, he insisting that he was used to sleeping on the ground 
and did not mind it. I finally told him that I was boss of the 
ranch, and he must do as I told him. To this he smilingly as- 
sented, and said that if it was orders he would have to obey. 
We always had breakfast and broke camp early in the morning 



LITTLE PILLS 71 

and aimed if a suitable campground could be found to go into 
camp by four o'clock in the afternoon. The priest had ex- 
pressed a wish for an early start, and I had ordered his horse 
and buggy to be ready for him, and he had breakfast with us 
and went his way across the prairie and was soon out of sight 
in the direction of Camp Supply where he intended going. I 
have often thought of this and wondered at it. Why did he 
do it? It was not for money for he was poor and had spent 
years at the work. What motive had he? What guardian angel 
accompanied him and kept him from harm? If it is true that 
there is a divinity that shapes our ends, why are they shaped 
so differently, and why is it that some are immune where others 
fear to tread? Right here I think it proper to say that the 
Catholic priests have always been the pioneers in religious mat- 
ters on the frontier. 

During this trip Mr. Reese and Mr. Parker and myself 
rode ahead one afternoon to select camp. We went at good 
speed and were soon out of sight of the command when Mr. 
Reese discovered he had lost his pocket book. He was quarter- 
master and it contained about fifteen hundred dollars of govern- 
ment money. He was sure he had taken it from under his pil- 
low in the morning and he became quite nervous about it. He 
referred to his loss several times before the command came up 
with, 'Well, if I am mistaken and Andy (his old negro servant 
whom he had brought from Kentucky) got it I am all right, and 
I will quit talking about it." But he was ill at ease and went out 
to meet the command as it approached and we could see the 
old darky take something from his pocket and give it to Mr. 
Reese who came back smiling and told us Andy said, "Oh yes, 
Massa, I just got it right down here, I done found it under your 
pillow" and this illustrates a phase of negro character quite in 
contrast with my political experience with Stanton. 

Mr. Reese, Mr. Parker and I generally rode together on this 
march and were seldom out of sight or hearing of prairie dogs. 
It was suggested one day that maybe they woud be good to eat. 
Knowing that they were not dogs at all but rather a kind of 
marmot, and sometimes called so, and are strict vegetarians, we 



72 LITTLE PILLS 

killed a young one and had it for dinner. I was quite pleased 
with the experiment before trying it, and was not particularly 
^thusiastic about it afterwards. It was not very bad but was 
not very good. It tasted something like rabbit but I think mostly 
like prairie dog. At one time in my life I wanted to try almost 
everything that was brought to bag in my hunting experiences 
and I have tested worse things than prairie dogs, and I think 
that if one were hungry enough he might relish it. 

We crossed the line into Kansas about the last of July and 
soon saw a new house away to the front, a thing we had not 
seen since leaving Fort Sill. It proved to be a kind of business 
and residence combination and was the first house in what is 
now known as Caldwell, Kansas, now the county seat of one of 
the famous wheat counties of Kansas, and a thriving city. The 
contrast between the two sides of the land separating Kansas 
and the Indian territory was very pronounced. Small houses 
of settlers and little patches of broken ground and other evi- 
dences of an inhabited country on the one side, and nothing but 
absolute vacancy on the other. 

At Wichita we remained three or four days, having our 
transportation repaired. As I remember it, we had a long stretch 
of sand before crossing the Arkansas and forded the river below 
the town and then turned to the west. It was a little village of 
one main street and I think they called it Douglas avenue. The 
houses were small but neat, and being the first town I had seen 
for a year or two it looked very attractive. We were there 
over the Fourth of July and I remember a delightfully clean, 
attractive little place where they sold ice cream. We had camped 
just north of the village and Mr. Reese, Mr. Parker and I fre- 
quently visited the ice cream parlor. If there were any saloons 
in the place I do not remember them for if there had been 
it would have probably shown on the enlisted men of the com- 
mand. 

I do not remember which one suggested it, but we concluded 
that it would be some fun to visit the real estate offices, of 
which I think there were two in the town, and hear what the 
agents had to say. They treated us most cordially and were 



LITTLE PILLS 73 

anxious to show us around and told us what a wonderful city it 
was going to be. All the southwest was going to be a great 
wheat country, although we saw no wheat, and would be tribu- 
tary to their town and they were going to vote bonds the fol- 
lowing Monday for a railroad from Newton, then the terminus 
of the Santa Fe. If not the terminus it was the great cattle 
shipping point for the immense herds that came up the hisholm 
trail from Texas, the trail we had followed some distance from 
Fort Sill. Everything would eventually come to Wichita and it 
would be a second Chicago. One agent offered us a corner lot 
centrally located for one hundred dollars, and out farther to the 
west, or north, whichever it might have been, I don't remember, 
on down to fifteen dollars a lot. We approved of the wonderful 
prospects for the town and told them we would consider the 
the matter of investing, and then went back to our tents and 
laughed about it. We at least had an enjoyable hour or so. 

I have had occasion to think about it since, not with any 
particular feeling of hilarity, but rather one of regret that I 
did not grasp the wonderful possibilities of the country. Either 
of the three of us could have invested a little money if we had 
known enough. After we had again started on the march I 
stopped and talked with a man standing by the roadside and he 
told me each alternate section of the land was offered by the 
Santa Fe railroad at two dollars per acre. It was a beautiful 
valley and the land looked rich but the country generally looked 
very primitive. 

One company left our command near here and I think went 
to Fort Larned or Fort Dodge, Kansas, the other two going on 
to the railroad at Fort Marker, where one company remained, 
and if I remember right, one company went on to Fort Hayes. 
I remained with Captain Kerin's company at Fort Harker for a 
day or two during which time the paymaster came and paid us 
for June. Captain Kerin was a typical Irishman and his com- 
pany, almost without exception were Irish, and they were very 
much devoted to each other. The captain looked on his men very 
much I thought, as a father would look on a bunch of wayward 
children. The payment was made by the middle of the after- 



74 LITTLE PILLS 

noon and by night I think most of the men were drunk, the few 
on guard duty being about the only sober ones, and the captain 
told me they would stay that way until their money was all 
gone. 

A funny thing occurred that evening. The captain and I 
were sitting in his tent talking when there was a scratch at 
the tent cloth and when the captain said, "Come!" the flap 
was thrown back and one of the sergeants saluted and said: 
"Report for duty, captain." The captain said: "Sergeant, have 
ye got any money?" "Yis, captain, a little." "Go and spend it, 
go and spend it." The sergeant saluted and dropped the tent 
flap and walked away and the captain turned to me and said: 
"No use trying to do anything with them until the money is 
ispent, and the whiskey is out of them." Two or three hours 
afterwards the sergeant returned, scratched on the tent, threw 
the flap back as before and saluted, and again said in a rather 
husky voice: "Report for duty, captain." "Sergeant, have you 
got any money?" "Not a cint, captain." "Very well, report to the 
first sergeant for duty." The captain told me this was a fair 
illustration of his experience on every pay day. It is hardly 
necessary to say that the captain was not a West Point graduate, 
but he was a royal good fellow and a good soldier and I ob- 
served while in the service that officers promoted from the ranks 
were the most devoted to the interests and comforts of their 
men. The trip back to my post was east by rail to Junction 
City and thence on the M., K. and T. to its terminus in the ter- 
ritory. The railway was then under construction and the termi- 
nus was changed every month or so. From the railroad I went 
by stage to Fort Sill. Nothing of interest occurred on the way 
until we arrived at the last stage station east of the fort. We 
had breakfast there and were told we had better get in the stage 
as they were about ready to start. We found a bunch of men 
hitching up a pair of mules to a light stage-like vehicle, and were 
told that they were just breaking them in and that it was better 
to get in the stage first. The driver was already up in his seat 
and Mr. Stearns, a very large man and owner of the ranch where 
we had breakfast, was up beside the driver, and was going with 



LITTLE PILLS 75 

us some three or four miles to where they had made a cut-off 
that took us by a large spring of water, the last we could get 
before reaching Cache creek, some eighteen miles away. When 
all was ready and the driver had the lines well in hand the word 
"Go" was given, and away we went at full speed, much like a 
horse race. The driver's efforts being wholly devoted to keep- 
ing the team in the road. They ran full speed most of the way 
to the springs but when we arrived there they were going in 
a quiet little trot, seemingly satisfied with the fun they had had 
on the way. Mr. Steams got down and held their bits and the 
driver got down and we got out of the stage — another man and 
myself being the only passengers — and walked toward the springs. 
I do not know how it happened, but when one trace was un- 
fastened the mules broke away from Mr. Steams and struck out 
over the prairie. My first thought was that we would have to 
walk back and wait for some other means of conveyance, but the 
off mule having one trace unfastened had the advantage in the 
race and out over the prairie they went in a great circle, round 
and round at full speed, scattering luggage from the hind boot 
of the stage until they ran themselves down, the driver and Mr. 
Stearns cutting across and trying to catch them. At last they 
succeeded for the mules were pretty well winded by this time 
and ready to go slow. We found nothing broken and soon had 
our luggage gathered up and the mules watered and were on our 
way. We got into Fort Sill a little later than the usual stage time, 
nothing the worse for the wear. 

I do not remember whether it was before or after my trip 
to Fort Marker that I was called to the Indian agency near Fort 
Sill to see Black Beaver, the chief of the Delawares, who was sick 
and had come there for treatment. I found him suffering from 
dysentery and was seriously ill, and as he was an old man I had 
serious doubts as to his recovery. He was neither able nor 
disposed to talk although he knew enough English to make him- 
self understood, but after a few days he began to feel some in- ' 
terest in life and gradually improved until he was convalescent. 
I felt particularly interested in him because of a story I had 
read about him as interpreter in an early day for Colnel Marcey 



76 LITTLE PILLS 

who was one of General Sherman's staff officers when they 
visited Fort Sill a short time before. When the colonel was a 
young officer in the service and had been sent out to make talks 
to the Indians, the story ran that the young officer had a pow- 
wow day appointed with the Kiowas and Comanches, and when 
they had assembled and gone through the preliminaries of such 
an occasion Captain Marcey told them of the great benefits the 
great father at Washington wished to confer on them, and wound 
up by saying: "We wish to put up poles across the country and 
string a wire on them and then you can talk over that wire to 
the Great Father in Washington and not have to wait until some 
of your people travel such a great way to see him. When he 
had finished he waited for Black Beaver to get up and tell it to 
the Indians, but Black Beaver did not move but hung his head 
and sat there. Why don't you tell them, asked the captain. 
Black Beaver shook his head and said: 'It's no use to tell them, 
I don't believe it myself." I was anxious to hear Black Beaver's 
report of that pow-wow, so when he was well enough I said to 
him one day: "General Sherman and staff were here a short 
time ago and Colonel Marcy was among them. I understand 
you knew Colonel Marcy a good many years ago." He brightened 
up and said: "Yes, I heard Captain Marcy was here and I wish 
I could have seen him." By careful questioning I got the story 
from him practically as Colonel Marcy had recorded it in his 
book. I said to him: "Well, do you believe it now?" He re- 
plied: "Oh, yes, I know it now, I know it can be done, but I 
don't know how." How much more ignorant was he than the 
most of us? 

I find I have not made my sketch of the events at Fort 
Sill in order of their occurrence and must now refer back to the 
winter of 1870 and '71 and we were still under canvas in the camp. 
It was an unusually cold winter. The thermometer fell to four- 
teen degrees below zero and the snow was a foot or more deep 
on the ground. I mention this incident both for the purpose of 
showing some of the hardships that officers and their wives 
underwent and also to show the self-sacrifice and loyalty and 
devotion of the enlisted men in an emergency. Doctor Brown 



LITTLE PILLS 77 

and his young wife were on their way to Fort Sill where he 
was to become post surgeon, a position I had held since Doctor 
Forward had been transferred to another post, and they were at 
the half-way camp between Fort Arbuckle and Forf Sill when the 
storm broke. The doctor's wife was confined there and the 
escort accompanying them devoted themselves night and day 
to making the camp as comfortable as possible, getting water, 
bringing wood, building fires and cooking, and this they kept 
up until the weather moderated and Mrs. Brown was sufficiently 
recovered to make it safe for her to travel. As the result of 
such heroism and devotion some of them were badly frost bitten, 
and all suffered more or less. I removed all the toes except one 
from one man's feet — only one of the large toes being left — and 
others lost a finger or two or parts of fingers and were otherwise 
frost bitten. In these cases nature sets up the line between the 
healthy and dead tissue and the amputation is made in the 
healthy part and far enough back to get a flap sufficient to cover 
the bone if possible. 

Mrs. Brown and her beautiful baby came with us when we 
left the post, intending to quit the service. She to visit with 
friends and relatives in the east. 

Another interesting occurrence took place when we were 
still in camp at Fort Sill. This was the loss of the quarter- 
master's mules, which occurred the latter part of the winter. 
The Indians — supposed to be — by some means got the gate of 
the corral open and with the leader on horseback rushed into 
the corral and set up the usual yells and shouts and soon had 
the whole bunch of 140 mules under way before the alarm could 
be given and the cavalry mounted for pursuit. They had such a 
start that they could not be followed in the night, it being very 
dark. Different commands of cavalry were sent out in pursuit 
but returned in a few days empty-handed. There was one young 
officer by the name of Harmon, a second lieutenant in the Tenth 
cavalry, a tall, rather good looking young fellow who had said to 
some officers that if they would give him a chance he would like 
to show what he could do. I think he finally went to General 
Grierson and expressed a wish to try. The general promptly 



78 LITTLE PILLS 

gave him a detachment of cavalry, some thirty or more men, 
and told him to stay as long as he liked, but to bring back the 
mules if possible. Nothing was heard of him for some time 
but finally word came from Fort Arbuckle that Mr. Harmon had 
reported there with a bunch of horsethieves and that most of 
the mules were then on their way back to Fort Sill. I heard 
Mr. Harmon himself tell some of the details of the scout. He 
had got on the trail of the thieves — not Indians at all — some- 
where south of Red river and found two of them in a house he 
went to at night for information, believing he was close to their 
camp. He took these two prisoners and waited until morning 
to attack the camp. The ranchmen where they had stopped and 
where they had already captured two of the thieves, knew the 
country well and acted as guides. Mr. Harmon and he had ex- 
changed firearms on the way, he taking Mr. Harmon's pistol 
and Mr. Harmon his shotgun. They rode along the bed of a 
little stream until quite near their camp. Most of the thieves 
were still in bed but the negro cook was busy about the fire. 
Mr. Harmon's horse being much superior to anything in the 
command, he was among the thieves practically alone. He shot 
and wounded one of the men with the second barrel of his shot- 
gun, and commanded them all to throw up their hands or he would 
kill the last one of them. He dropped the shotgun and reached 
for his pistols but of course they were gone. However, the 
thieves stood there with their hands up until the command came 
and they were hand-cuffed and were soon ready for the march 
to Fort Arbuckle, the nearest military post. Not more than a 
half dozen mules had been disposed of. 

The sequel to this story was interesting to me for it caused 
me a trip to Fort Arbuckle and back. The guardhouse at Fort 
Arbuckle was not considered safe and it was thought best to 
send the thieves to the new guardhouse at Fort Sill until the 
law could take its course. They were sent under a guard of 
colored troops commanded by a sergeant with instructions to kill 
them if they tried to escape. The guard claimed that one man 
made a break for the brush, but the prisoners claimed that he 
did nothing of the kind, anyway one of them was badly wounded 



LITTLE PILLS 79 

and was taken back to Fort Arbuckle, and as Doctor Brewer, the 
post surgeon was sick at that time a request for a medical offi- 
cer come to Fort Arbuckle and cut a man's leg off was received 
at Fort Sill and I was ordered on that duty. Before I arrived at 
Fort Arbuckle, Doctor Brewer considered it too urgent a case 
to be delayed any longer, and although hardly able to Iiandle the 
knife, he had amputated the leg before I got there. I remained 
a few days until the doctor was sufficiently recovered to attend 
to the medical duties of the post, and then returned to Fort Sill. 
Ij now come to the last record I shall make of service at this 
post and have hesitated about mentioning it at all, and do so 
now in as few words as possible, not only because "there are 
sorrows too sacred to be babbled to the world" but also because 
they pull so hard on the heart strings. Our little boy was 
scalded to death at this camp. The negro servant had set a 
large kettle of boiling water off the stove, and some way in his 
play he fell into it. We laid him away in the cemetery on the 
hillside and had a stone covering placed over his grave, to mark 
the place where his little scalded body lay. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

This experience with the little prospect of promotion in the 
service decided us on our desire to return to private life, and I 
wrote to the medical director of the department expressing my 
wishes in the matter, and my reasons for quitting the service, 
and received orders to report at the headquarters of the de- 
partment, Leavenworth, Kansas. 

It may be well here to relate an experience of army life 
that occurred at Fort Sill after we had left the post. The feel- 
ing of apprehension regarding the Indians had subsided to such 
an extent that the officers' wives would take outings in the 
ambulance, and it became in time considered safe to go to the 
Washita agency and make purchases and return the same day. 
Two of the officers' wives had made the trip and were nearing 
the head of Cache creek on their return, when they saw the In- 
dians coming. The negro driver urged the mules with such good 
effect that they reached the timber and the driver escaped but 
the women were carried away to the mountains, and for two 
weeks were subjected to all the brutal horrors to be expected 
of savages and then were ransomed. We were well acquainted 
with one of these women but the other had only been at the 
post a short time before we left. 

I think few of the people of our country today realize how 
recently such horrors have been committed. For most of them 
it is a matter of the long forgotten past. 

We left Fort Sill about the middle of August, 1871 and had 
for company Mrs. Harmon, wife of Lieutenant Harmon, who 
captured the horsethieves and Mrs. Brown, wife of the post 
surgeon, and their little baby and nurse girl. We had an escort 
of a half dozen men under command of a sergeant as far as 
Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, near the junction of the Grand 
and Arkansas rivers, and from there to the end of the railroad 
two or three men to help about camp. The M., K. and T. rail- 
road was then only finished to Pryor's creek and we had to take 
a freight train from there to Chetopa, Kansas, the end of the 



LITTLE PILLS 81 

passenger run. We camped at Steam's ranch the first night 
out of Fort Sill. As we were starting the following morning we 
were informed that a dead man had just been found near the 
road we were to take, and only two or three miles away. We got 
some tools at the ranch and stopped long enough to bury him. 
He had soldier's clothes on and had probably been only recently 
discharged from the service. A little money was found in his 
pocket which I told the sergeant to take and on his return to 
Fort Sill try and have the man identified, if possible, and send 
the money to his friends. He had not been dead long as the 
wolves had not disturbed the body. 

Our night camp on the Washita was something we shall 
always remember. Before it got dark the mosquitoes had made 
our acquaintance in such numbers that we were doubtful of 
oui< night's rest, but we had the tent put up and supper over 
without suffering serious loss of blood. They kept coming in 
greater numbers until we realized that the first were only in- 
stallments of the advance guard, and by bedtime they were 
almost unbearable. We smudged the tent to drive them out but 
only succeeded in driving out the little nurse girl who was caring 
for the baby. I tried my usual place in the ambulance for a nap 
but could not sleep and heard the women talking in the tent 
until toward midnight when I called my wife and told her that 
if she would come out to the ambulance I would try and keep the 
mosquitoes off her until she could get a little rest. We tried that 
for an hour but had to acknowledge our defeat and we still 
heard the other women talking in the tent. \ was now ready to 
surrender, so called the sergeant and told him to have the 
ambulance driver hitch up and we would get out of there and 
he and the escort could come on when they liked, as we were 
than away from danger from the Indians. We drove for some 
time after daylight and found a beautiful camp ground with 
fine running water and went into camp. The escort was not 
far behind us — they had also met with defeat. We spent that 
day and the following night in that camp and had a good rest. 
The escort had brought a cub bear along and he was a very 
amusing rascal although a cause of some anxiety to the women. 



82 LITTLE PILLS 

This day after we had sat down to dinner some trash fell on the 
table and looking up we discovered him out on a limb above us. 
The women thought best to have the table removed. His home 
while on the road was in the feed box at the rear of the wagon 
where he was chained, and the first thing when released was 
to hunt the water and take a good bath and then he was ready- 
to investigate everything around camp. He would roam around 
at his own sweet will until away in the night when he would 
return to his box where we always found him in the morning. 
We had to keep the commissary supplies well protected, for he 
was a born thief. 

We had a good supply of small game on the way particularly 
turkeys and prairie chickens. We found the young turkeys at 
this season of the year to be unusually fine. 

When we arrived at Oswego my wife went to visit friends 
in the country and I went on to the department headquarters 
at Leavenworth to report. When I got there the medical direc- 
tor was anxious that I should remain in the service and said 
that he would give me a good post and suggested Camp Lime- 
stone in Southeast Kansas in what was then known as the Chero- 
kee neutral lands, about thirty miles south of Fort Scott. It 
would be close to the railroad and other conveniences and com- 
forts of civilization, and he was sure I would like it, and he 
hoped there would be an examining board before long for pro- 
motions and I had better consider the matter. I asked for two 
weeks leave of absence to consider his proposition which was 
cheerfully granted, and I went back to Iowa and looked up the 
prospects and in ten days was back to continue in the service. 

My wife and I together went to our new station at Camp 
Limestone and arrived there September 9th, 1871. At that time 
the railroad was finished to Baxter Springs but there had been 
trouble with the settlers when crossing the Cherokee neutral 
lands, an area embracing Cherokee and Crawford counties 
and the southern tier of townships in Bourbon county. The 
land had been sold for the Indians by the government to James 
F. Joy, representing what was then known as the Kansas City, 
Fort Scott and Gulf railroad. The settlers thought they should 



LITTLE PILLS 83 

have the right to homestead the land, and resisted the construc- 
tion of the railroad, caught and whipped the engineers and 
threatened their lives and burned their instruments, the result 
being that troops were sent to protect the purchasers and their 
employees in the construction of the road. 

There were three camps established along the line of the 
railroad on these lands, one at Drywood, one at Limstone creek, 
and one near Columbus, and occupied by one company at each 
post. Temporary buildings were constructed and the troops made 
as comfortable as possible where they were not expected to re- 
main permanently. Fort Scott was the headquarters, General 
Neal being in command, but there was a company commander at 
each camp. We arrived late in the afternoon and went to a 
house close by and remained there until the mail messenger from 
the camp should return and report our arrival. In the course 
of an hour an ambulance came, and we made our way across 
country to camp and I reported to Captain Fenton of the Sixth 
cavalry in command of the camp, and we remained at his quar- 
ters over night and had our own quarters ready for occupancy 
the following day. The country was fairly well settled imme- 
diately around the camp and along the streams, and there was 
a schoolhouse less than a mile away. 

Part of the settlers had been there for some years and were 
getting things about them to look quite home-like. Fruit trees 
grwing, peach trees bearing, and hedge-fences set out, and while 
there was always a seeming scarcity of money and farm products 
brought low prices, the people seemed contented and hopeful. 
This was a very comfortable contrast with our experiences among 
the Indians. Small game, particularly quail and prairie chickens 
were plentiful, and wild fowl abundant in season. There being 
very little to do in a professional way I had plenty of time to 
indulge in my favorite sport with dog and gun. We had not 
been at that camp long until Captain Fenton's company was 
replaced by another company of which Captain (Brevet Major) 
Upham was in command and Mr. Gordon, first lieutenant and 
Mr, Kerr, just recently from West Point was second lieutenant, 
and this company remained at Fort Limestone during my service 



84 LITTLE PILLS 

there, and until the spring of 1873 when all the camps on the 
neutral lands were discontinued, the Supreme Court having de- 
cided the title of the land in the railroad company. 

When General Neal was assigned to another post, Major 
Upham took his place at Fort Scott, leaving Mr. Gordon in com- 
mand at our camp. The officers of the different camps had 
transportation or yearly passes on the railroad from Fort Scott 
to Baxter Springs and Fort Scott being then the principal town 
in the southeast part of the state we were frequently there 
to make purchases or for any purpose our wishes might suggest. 
We boarded the train at a place called Engleton, since changed 
to Beulah although there was no station or side-track and only 
one house close by, and trains only stopped on signals or to let 
off passengers. Take it altogether it was very much like living 
on a farm in a new country that was fairly well settled, but we 
had many comforts that farmers could not afford and did not 
have to work as they did to earn a living. 

Most of the farmers belonged to what was called the Set- 
tlers' League and those of them who did not belong from choice 
did so from fear. I got acquainted with a number who felt no 
way in sympathy with some of their doings such as burning 
bridges and other unlawful acts. They were all civil enough to 
the officers and men of our camp and quite a number were dis- 
posed to be friendly. Some of them had contracted their land 
from the railroad company considering their investments, which 
in many cases embraced good improvements, too valuable to 
take chances but kept their contracts a secret. I frequently took 
their payments to the land offices in Fort Scott, they preferring 
to send it rather than go themselves. 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-two was a bountiful crop 
year and we could get all the peaches and many other things we 
needed very cheap. The quartermaster contracted his corn that 
year at 14 cents a bushel and the farmers who furnished it were 
greatly pleased at getting such a good price for shelled com. 
Early in the spring of the year I received orders to take charge 
of the surgical needs of the camp near Columbus and to make a 
trip three times each week and as much oftener as I though it 



LITTLE PILLS 85 

necessary. This I could do and return to my own camp the same 
day. This was a pleasant duty for it gave me more to do and I 
was taken to and from the railroad in the ambulance each trip. 

Captain Bennett of the Fifth infantry was the commanding 
officer at Columbus, a dignified, courteous, soldierly gentleman, 
to whom I became very much attached. In a letter from Gen- 
eral Miles he speaks of Captain Bennett as follows: "Captain 
Bennett who was in command of the camp at Columbus was a 
very gallant officer. He had an excellent record during the 
Civil war and went with the regiment to Montana. He was en- 
gaged in several Indian campaigns and in 1879 was killed in an 
engagement with hostile Bannock Indians at Clark's Fork of the 
Yellowstone. He was an ideal officer and one of the many heroes 
who gave his life in protecting the homes of the defenseless set- 
tlers and maintaining the supremacy of the government." This 
duty continued until late the following fall when another sur- 
geon, Doctor Gray, was sent to take charge of that camp. 

When the open season for chicken shooting began we had 
frequent visitors who were fond of the sport. Major Upham, 
commanding at Fort Scott, would come often and bring friends 
from Fort Scott, generally Mr. Drake and Mr. McDonald and 
sometimes others, to spend a day with dog and gun. Captain 
Butler from the camp on Drywood would come for a day. Colonel 
Delancey Floyd-Jones of the Third infantry came down from 
Fort Hayes for two or three days, and brought with him an 
excellent setter dog, that could not stand the heat as well as the 
pointers, but was much more easily controlled. I was a bit amused 
at his experience while there. When asked at the dinner table 
the first day if he would be helped to both beef and chicken he 
replied, "No beef for me while I'm here, I can get all the beef 
1 want at Fort Hayes, I came down here to eat prairie chicken." 
The last morning he was there I said. Well Colonel, how is it 
this morning, prairie chicken or steak, or both?" "Well, he 
said, I believe I will try a little steak this morning." He went 
away delighted with his experience and promised me another 
visit in the fall, but for some reason we did not see him again. 



86 LITTLE PILLS 

He was a fine type of the old army officer, dignified, courteous 
and cordial. 

I had done my first chicken shooting on the way in from 
Fort Sill, and was by no means a good shot. Mr. Kerr, the young 
lieutenant, who was stationed here, was the best wing-shot I 
have ever seen on the sporting field. He had his gun made to 
measure and although he was six feet tall and finely propor- 
tioned he had ordered his gun to be only 6 1/2 pounds in weight. 
Up to that time I had thought the bigger the gun the more 
deadly the weapon. I found I had a good deal to learn about 
guns and show to shoot them. I must tell you about one of my 
first experiences in chicken-shooting with Mr. Kerr. I happened 
to see one on the ground and could not resist the temptation and 
I will never forget the disgusted expression on his face as he 
turned to me and said, "For God's sake, are you hungry." That 
one precipitation cured me of shooting birds on the ground, un- 
less I was hungry. Time and practice finally made me a fairly 
creditable shot but I was never steady in the field or at the trap. 
Mr. Kerr on the other hand was always steady and reliable. I 
remember one day just before Christmas when the snow was sev- 
eral inches deep he asked me to count out one hundred loaded 
cartridges for him while he attended guard mount. The ambu- 
lance was at the door and he started promptly when guard 
mount was over. He brought back eighty-four quail and nine 
loaded cartridges. Poor old Dick, his faithful pointer had re- 
trieved them all, and was an invalid for two or three days there- 
after. 

Mr. Kerr's quarters and ours were just across the corner 
of the parade ground from each other, his facing north and ours 
east, and he was at our house a great deal, especially in the 
evenings. The conversation generally turned to guns and their 
different makes and merits; to dogs and their different breeds 
and training; the loads to be used and the proper proportion 
of powder and shot. All these things were discussed until we 
felt we were authorities on the subject but for fear we might 
be wrong about the powder and shot, we experimented to find 
if any of the powder left the gun-barrel unburnt, and with target 



LITTLE PILLS 87 

we settled at least to our own satisfaction, the amount of shot 
and powder to be used. My subsequent hunting experience has 
not materially modified our conclusions. In those days we used 
black powder and loaded our own shells, the smokeless powder 
and machine loaded shells being then unknown. 

One of the interesting things at this camp that year was 
Mr. Gordon's company garden, some four or five acres in ex- 
tent with everything imaginable planted in it. The company 
did the work of planting and cultivating but the rabbits did a 
large part of the eating. There would be days when all the 
company would be out shooting rabbits and it was much like 
the picket firing I had become familiar with in the volunteer 
service. This was kept up until the rabbits were comparatively 
few around camp, and the garden produced abundantly and was 
a great help in rounding out the men's rations. One of the 
enlisted men was an expert with the rifle and caught many of 
the rabbits on the run. 

While here I had an opportunity of observing for the first 
time the variableness in area of rainfall at different seasons of 
the year. The latter part of winter and early spring I observed 
that if it was cloudy or raining at Fort Scott, it was the same 
way at Columbus fifty miles away and I presume over a much 
greater area. But as the season advanced, I would find it rain- 
ing at Limestone, while on my arrival at Columbus the weather 
would be clear and dry only twenty miles away. Sometimes a 
heavy shower would fall between the camps and both camps 
would be dry. This was a surprise to me because I had not 
thought of it before, and I think the feeling generally is if it 
is raining where you happen to be, it is raining everywhere else. 

Before this camp was abandoned I had some hospital prop- 
erty on hand for which I was responsible, and that had ceased 
to be of service, and I had applied for its inspection and con- 
demnation. Soon afterwards Colonel Nelson A. Miles of the 
Fifteenth infantry and inspector general of the department came 
and condemned the property. After dinner we played chess un- 
til time for him to be taken to the northbound train, and I have 
often wondered since that time if he remembers victory as well 



88 LITTLE PILLS 

as I do defeat. Since then he became a distinguished officer 
in our Indian warfare and finally attained the rank of lieutenant 
general and commander-in-chief of the army. 

Most of the officers who served at the different camps on 
the neutral land while I was at Limestone have since died. So 
far as I know, General Kerr — the Mr. Kerr of our camp life 
there — and myself are the only ones remaining. Mr. Kerr be- 
came a captain in 1885 and was wounded in the assault on San 
Juan ridge July 1, 1898, promoted to major in October, 1898, was 
military attache at Berlin in 1900 to 1902, promoted to colonel 
in 1903 and to brigadier general in 1908 and retired from active 
service in 1909 as brigadier general in the United States Army. 
He saw much Indian fighting on the frontier, and received nu- 
merous medals and honorable mention, in orders from different 
departments and army headquarters. It is a pleasure to mention 
these promotions andiordersi commending him for meritorious con- 
duct for as a young man good things were expected of him by 
his friends. He is still living and it must be a great comfort to 
him in his old age to reflect on the distinguished and valuable 
services he has rendered his country. 

The following winter the Supreme Court rendered its de- 
cision in the case involving the title to the Cherokee neutral 
lands in favor of the railroads. I think the settlers generally 
felt that the decision would be against them for many of them 
sold their improvements and moved away, and most of those 
remaining contracted their land from the railroad companies. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Orders came the latter part of March to abandon the camp 
and I was ordered to accompany the command to Fort Gibson, 
Indian Territory, and then to report to the commanding officer 
at Fort Garland, Colorado, for assignment to duty. From Fort 
Gibson I returned to Camp Limestone for my wife and little 
girl baby, who was bom the previous November. We were fur- 
nished tickets by the railroad as far as Kansas City, but when 
we came to use them we found they had been packed with our 
baggage and of course had to pay car-fare. We went over the 
same railroad from Kansas City as the one I had first taken 
in crossing the plains but in place of stopping in Kansas, is it 
did then, it had been finished to Denver. 

There was a narrow guage road from Denver to Pueblo. 
Its passenger train was at the depot when ours pulled in and 
our train stopped beside it. It was quite a curiosity to me. It 
looked so very small, I thought of it as a toy affair and won- 
dered if we could make any headway on such a thing. I was 
surprised and much gratified to soon know how much I had mis- 
calculated its merits. It was a long train and went in and out 
among the canons and around the mountain sides in an amusing 
way and with surprising speed. Maybe we would look out and 
see an engine coming down the track across the canon from us 
and would discover it to be our own engine puttering along as 
though pleased with its job. We stayed over night at Pueblo 
and in the morning we found there was an ambulance to take us 
and Major Hartz over the mountains to Fort Garland. The 
major had introduced himself the previous night on our arrival 
from Denver.' On the route to Garland we spent the night at the 
different stage stations and were made fairly comfortable. As 
we neared the summit of Sangre De Cristo Pass (Blood of Christ) 
the snow was very deep and soft. We thought it too much of a 
load for the mules and so the major and I concluded to walk. It 
was well we did so, for the mules had all they could do to flounder 
through it. I stood the walking very well but it was laborious 



90 LITTLE PILLS 

work. The major did not fare so well, for as we neared the top, 
which is about eleven thousand, five hundred feet above sea level, 
he was spitting blood and having difficulty in breathing. The 
west side of the range was clear of snow and it was only two 
or three miles from the summit to Steam's ranch, where we 
stayed over night, and by morning although the major had a 
restless night the hemmorhage had stopped. The following day 
we drove to Fort Garland only twenty miles away. 

Fort Garland is situated at the edge of the foothills just 
south of old Baldy, one of the highest peaks of the Sangre De 
Cristo range. It was a pretty location overlooking the Rio 
Grande valley to the south and west and we were assigned to 
comfortable quarters. 

About the first part of May a troop of cavalry under com- 
mand of Major Carraher was ordered to establish a camp at the 
junction of the west fork with the main stream of the Rio 
Grande, about one hundred miles west and a little north of the 
post, and I was assigned to duty as surgeon of the command. 
This camp was established as a base of supplies for government 
surveyors who were to survey the San Juan Indian reserva- 
tion. There had been trouble for some years between the Ute 
Indians and prospectors who had gone into their reservation and 
located some valuable mines, and warfare between them had re- 
sulted in the government buying the land and opening it to set- 
tlers, and this survey was to fix the boundaries and divide the 
land into sections and cross sections so legal title could be 
given. 

The surveyors arrived a few days after we had established 
camp. A Mr. Prout was in charge of the party and they stayed 
at camp several days to establish the exact latitude and longi- 
tude of the camp as a base from which to make additional sur- 
veys. I became very much interested in this work and they ex- 
plained a good deal of it to me but I was surprised at the time it 
required and the figuring necessary. I had the pleasure of 
watching the chronometer and calling time on signal from the 
observer. The nights were clear and in that rare atmosphere 
the stars shone with great brilliancy. 



LITTLE PILLS 91 

An escort accompanied the surveyors in their work, a squad 
of a half dozen men in command of a noncommissioned officer, 
generally a sergeant, and each week these were relieved by 
others and returned to camp. There was practically no need 
for a surgeon with the camp that summer, the only two cases 
in the hospital being a man who was blinded by a premature 
shot in the mines and my pointer dog which I shot on one of 
my hunting trips. 

The country along the Rio Grande was unsettled, there being 
but one abandoned log-house between Fort Garland and Loma, 
now called Del Norte, a Mexican village with a good sprinking 
of American houses, and located at the head of what was called 
the San Luis valley. The log-house was dignified by the name 
of Alamoosa and was our camp-ground and half-way place be- 
tween Fort Garland and our summer camp. The trip was gen- 
erally made in two days although the distance was nearly one 
hundred miles. From Loma to the camp, a distance of some 
fifteen miles, the mountains sloped gradually to the river and 
there were a few adobe houses occupied by Mexicans. As there 
was very little to do I spent a good deal of time hunting and 
fishing. Rainbow trout are very plentiful in the river for here 
it was a clear rushing mountain stream with deep pools and the 
water was cold throughout the summer from melting snows. We 
had fish at all times and cooked in every imaginable way until 
we were almost sickened at the thought of fish, although they 
were always pretty to look at. To this day my wife does not 
want to see or eat fish. All kinds of game were abundant but I 
never had much success with the larger varieties, I did not un- 
derstand deer hunting and always managed it the wrong way. 
I did not know anything about their runways, so still hunting 
was not practical and in riding over the mountains they saw me 
before I saw them and that settled the matter. I tried repeat- 
edly to get a shot at an elk that I frequently saw on his favor- 
ite grazing ground, a small park a half mile or more away near 
the top of one of the high points in the mountains, but with all 
my care, and calculating the direction of the wind, and figuring 
on the best way of approach, he would always scent the danger 



92 LITTLE PILLS 

while I was making my way through the thicket of aspens that 
surrounded the park and I could hear the keen whistle-like note 
and hear him bounding away before I caught sight of him. 

On these hunting trips I rode a government mule that Gen- 
eral Alexander, the post commander at Fort Garland, had given 
me for the summer's use, and who spoke of him with great 
praise as an exceptionally good saddle animal. He was said to 
be twenty-seven years old, and had formerly been used as a mes- 
senger mule between Fort Garland and Taos when the mail was 
brought to the post from the latter point. I suppose he had been 
gray at one time but now he was white from age, but had been 
well cared for and although in fine condition, had been retired 
from actual service. I found him all that he was recommended 
to be, and with an additional merit that he was not afraid of a 
gun. I could fire from the saddle and he would not flinch, and 
because of this exceptional quality, I had a great deal of sport 
shooting jack-rabbits. They would jump up and run away fifty 
or a hundred yards and sit up straight, which is their habit, and 
I would aim in line and a little below the mark and as the mule 
would inhale it would raise the muzzle of the rifle and by pulling 
the trigger at the right moment I was sure to see the rabbit 
tumble over. I never had much chance from the saddle at larger 
game. The color of the mule was against it, and I was not a 
good shot with the rifle at moving objects. 

I became much attached to this mule for his exceptionally 
easy gait and his fine disposition, however, he played me a bad 
trick one day for which I have since forgiven him because of my 
own culpable ignorance. It was getting late and I was out of 
my usual hunting range when I saw an antelope grazing in one 
of the many beautiful parks to be found in the mountains. There 
was a small ravine down the center of this park near which I 
noticed a clump of willows and figured that if I could approach 
from behind the willows I could get a good shot. My scheme 
worked all right and I got up within range and fired. To my 
great surprise I saw the shot take effect on the hillside beyond 
and had passed over the antelope's shoulders. This was a puzzle 
to me for I was sure I had taken good aim, and equally sure 



LITTLE PILLS 93 

that I did not have the "buck-ague." The antelope ran away 
and stopped and looked back at me when I estimated him to be 
about two hundred and fifty yards away. I made a careful al- 
lowance for the distance and fired at the shoulder and at the 
report of the gun he dropped in his tracks apparently without 
a struggle. I thought a little strange of this, for I had aimed 
just back of the shoulders and supposed he would at least make 
a jump or two and struggle some after falling. Imagine my sur- 
prise when I found his neck broken just back of his ears, a 
purely accidental shot. I went back to my mule, which by the 
way I had named "Paddy O'Rooney" but always addressed him 
by his given name, and I thought I would put the antelope on him 
without dressing it as it was getting late and I wanted to find a 
trail down to the valley. I found that Paddy had an altogether 
different view of the matter, for he had no desire to get acquaint- 
ed with the dead antelope. There was no timber near where I 
could tie him to a tree, to force him to accept the load and so a 
bright idea occurred to me. I have done a good many foolish 
things in my life, but I think nothing quite so idiotic as this. 
1 decided that I would tie the end of the lariat rope to the ante- 
lope's hind legs, the other end being fastened around Paddy's 
nneck and I would then get on the mule and pull the antelope 
up. This scheme worked pretty well at least part way. I was 
in the saddle and my gun acrss in front of me and I backed 
Paddy up toward the antelope, wrapping the lariat around the 
horn of the saddle as he backed. Paddy would look back and 
snort a little, but was quite gentle until I attempted to raise 
the antelope up to me. When Paddy saw it move I believe he 
thought the thing had come to life and was going to swallow 
him, for the way he went down the mountain side would have 
shamed John Gilpin and his foam covered horse. I tried to hold 
him but I might as well have tried to hold a cyclone. I had 
been raised on a farm and helped break the young horses to ride 
and work, and I thought I could hold anything, but I had never 
been on a scared mule before, and I found I was utterly help- 
less. My first impulse was to throw away my gun and try to 
get off and let the mule and the antelope have it out together but 



94 LITTLE PILLS 

the lariat was across my right thigh and I could not get away 
from it. I believe the thing following him added to his terror, 
for we went over places I could not have forced him over in his 
sane condition. I went over the track of our runaway race a 
few days later and found a ledge of nearly four feet in height 
that we had gone over, and I really think il would have been the 
same thing to Paddy if it had been forty feet in place of four. 
The old saying "All's well that ends well'" proved true in this 
case. The lariat rope slipped around the saddle horn caused 
by the jerking of the antelope as it bounded along and choked 
Paddy down just as we got to the edge of the timber. I hur- 
riedly dismounted and loosened the lariat so that he could get 
his breath and found that he was pretty well tuckered out. T 
tied him to a tree and then went back to examine my antelope. 
The hind and fore-quarters were held together by the backbone 
and a strip of skin along the belly but the ribs and entrails were 
gone. Fortunately we had stopped near a trail which I knew 
would lead down to the valley, although I had never been over it 
before. When I tried to put what was left of the antelope on 
Paddy's back he again rebelled. I then tied his neck up against 
a small tree and wrapped the lariat around the tree and his neck 
until he could not buck, but in his struggles he lost his footing 
and hung himself. I cut the rope as quickly as I could, and got 
him on his feet again and gave him a little more freedom the 
next time and while he protested most vigorously, I finally got 
my antelope securely fastened in the saddle and led the poor 
worn-out mule down the trail. It was very dark by this time 
and we made slow progress but finally reached the valley and 
I estimated that we were not more than three or four miles from 
camp. We had only gone a short distance when we met a de- 
tachment of cavalry that had been ordered out by Major Car- 
raher in search of me. The major had been over to my tent two 
or three times and finding I was not there became uneasy, think- 
ing I might have met with some accident, or the Indians might 
have found me. We arrived in camp about nine or ten o'clock 
with what was left of the antelope, a very tired hunter and a 
very tired mule. 



LITTLE PILLS 95 

The following day I tested my rifle at a mark and found 
good cause for my wild shooting the previous day. I suppose the 
front sight had been slightly moved by striking on a tree or 
something on my trip before I found the antelope. Paddy and 
I still remained good friends and he took me many pleasant 
rides through the mountains. 

With the latter part of August came the wing-shooting of 
the dusky grouse (Canace of the Ornothologist) a large slate- 
colored bird, some larger than our prairie chickens (Cupidonia 
Cupido). The young birds could then fly strong and afforded 
great sport. My observation is that it is a very stupid bird. X 
have seen them sit on the limb of a tree until knocked off after 
repeated throwing and have seen them sit on the bare ground 
apparently thinking they were hid, until I have walked up to 
within ten or fifteen feet of them, before they would take 
wing. Until well grown I found them most frequently in the 
open parks where there was a ravine with water and willows and 
other undergrowth, and more or less grass for cover, but later 
in the season they took to the large timber. So far as my ex- 
perience goes they are the best table bird of all the grouse 
family. The flesh is white and delicious. Their range is as high 
as timber line in the summer but they go lower as the season 
advances. There were no quail at this altitude. I think they 
do not go so high and I saw no other game birds. 

There was a bird about camp called the "Nut-cracker" and 
I believe in some places known as "lark's Crow" (Nussifrage 
Columbrana) that for a nuisance I believe could not be equalled. 
In action, in size and something in appearance and rasping voice 
he much resembled our jays. They were in great numbers about 
our camp and were impudent fellows and seemed determined to 
get into everything. Mr. H. W. Henshaw was with us that sum- 
mer collecting natural history specimens for the Smithsonian 
Institute. He was quite anxious to find the nest and eggs of 
this bird. I supposed from their abundance this would be a 
matter requiring little effort, but I found I was mistaken. I 
made it my special part that summer to locate a nest of these 
birds and was constantly on the lookout. I often went out with 



96 LITTLE PILLS 

Mr. Henshaw in the morning when he would start on his day's 
round but generally lost out after the first hour. He was an 
athlete in size and finely proportioned and hardened to the work 
by constant practice, and could walk the legs off me in an hour's 
travel. I would then strike out for myself but was always look- 
ing for the Nut-cracker and trying to locate his nest. One day I 
saw him fly away from a hole some fifteen feet up in an old tree 
stump, the limbs having fallen away. This looked encouraging so 
I climbed up and found a nest but no eggs. I reported my find 
to Mr. Henshaw that evening and he was pleased with the pros- 
pects and said we would go together in about a week, and by that 
time we might find eggs in the nest. I had marked the place 
well and we had no difficulty in finding it. Mr. Henshaw did the 
climbing this time and thrust his hand in the hole but found no 
eggs. "Wait a minute though," he said and thrust his hand 
down in the hole again, but brought it out in a hurry and the 
blood was dripping from it. He suggested I make a forked stick 
such as every boy knows who has ever twisted a rabbit out of 
a stone wall or hollow log, and he twisted the thing out which 
proved to be a mountain rat, something entirely new to me. It 
was a rat in every way I had known them but had a bushy tail 
like a squirrel. We took it to camp with us and the skin went 
away with his other specimens to the institute. This is com- 
monly called the bushy-tailed rat but is designated Neotoma 
Cinera Orelestes by the zoologist. 

Mr. Henshaw is now chief of the biological survey in the 
United States Department of Agriculture, to whom I am indebted 
for many agreeable experiences and for most of my knowledge 
concerning most of the birds and animals herein mentioned. His 
contributions to the National Geographical Magazine are par- 
ticularly interesting and instructive. The rat mentioned is also 
one of the varieties of what is known as pack-rats. They con- 
struct a nest of sticks and other rubbish found in the neighbor- 
hood, and if near a house may carry off spoons or knives or 
anything that attracts their attention. There is a smooth tailed 
rat belonging to this genius that is very abundant in New Mexico 



^ LITTLE PILLS 97 

and is apt to leave something in place of the article he carries 
away, and on that account is often called the swap-rat. 

General Alexander and some other officers from the post 
at Fort Garland came to our camp the latter part of July. Com- 
plaint had been made by cattlemen, really some Englishmen by 
the name of Hamilton, that some of their cattle had been killed 
and they blamed the escort that accompanies the engineers for 
their death. Mr. Delaney, who came with the general, and I 
were detailed to go to Antelope park, where the ranch was lo- 
cated, and investigate the matter. The general and some other 
officers accompanied us as far as Wagon-wheel Gap and with a 
small escort we continued on to the park, the general and other 
officers returning to camp. We found the Hamilton brothers 
very cordial and hospitable. We talked the business over quite 
thoroughly and remained until near midnight before returning 
to our camp a short distance away. The following morning we 
found a half-inch or more of ice in a cup that had been left 
with some water in it the night before, rather cool weather I 
thought for the 30th of July. It was very chilly riding for the 
first two or three hours in the morning, but the sunshine finally 
got the better of the cold, and we were comfortable for the 
balance of the day. We camped at Wagon-wheel Gap the fol- 
lowing night and found it an interesting place, although there 
was but one log building and that unoccupied, in the place. 

The river here makes a great circular bend around an almost 
perpendicular wall of rock that I judged to be about a half-mile 
high. Across the river from this was a beautiful valley sloping 
gradually up into the mountains and in it were many hot springs 
varying in temperature from barely tepid to boiling hot. 

The following day brought us back to our summer camp 
again. Our camp here was beautifully located among the pines 
and between the camp and bluff there was a pretty little lake 
which had been made by turning a little mountain stream into 
the low ground between the camp and the bluff. The officers' 
tents were in line facing this lake, and at the back ground 
sloped gradually to the river about a half-mile away. A very in- 
teresting 'nature feature" of this camp, was the uniformity 



98 LITTLE PILLS 

with which we got a shower of rain every morning during July 
and August, and we got into the habit of expecting it at eleven 
o'clock and were seldom disappointed. One day, August 17th, the 
water from the cloud in passing over became congealed and 
formed snow-flakes that for size were really astonishing. I was 
on my way to Loma on my faithful mule Paddy O'Rooney, and 
when it came it shut out practically everything from sight, a few 
yards away, and lasted probably twenty or thirty minutes. About 
four inches of snow fell in that time, then the sun came out 
bright and warm, and it seemed to go away almost as fast as it 
came. On my way back to camp the depressions along the way 
were flooded and by night only the spots protected by ledges of 
rock or dense foliage were left. With all these pleasant sur- 
roundings, and nothing to do but fish and hunt, life became a 
little monotonous. I sometimes wonder if people will get tired of 
golden streets and heavenly music. 

The survey being ended we broke camp September 9th and 
started back to Fort Garland. Mr. Prout and one other engineer, 
whose name I cannot now recall, accepted commissions in the 
Egyptian army and a letter received some months later assured 
me it was not a very comfortable service. 

While in this camp my wife and I thought one day it would 
be fine to take an outing together, so the ambulance was ordered 
and she and our little baby girl and nurse girl and myself and the 
driver made up the party. We crossed the west fork of the Rio 
Grande and went up the valley for some distance. The west fork 
is smaller than the main stream, with many pools and little 
rapids and hugs close to the north side of the valley as far as 
we went. The mountains rose abruptly from the waters and at 
a great height divided into peaks and spires, pinnacles and dames, 
in abandoned confusion, that impressed me not only as most re- 
markable but also the most beautiful combination of mountain 
scenery I had ever witnessed. The pools were especially attrac- 
tive for I had taken my tackle with me, so I left the party in 
charge of the driver and started out for some good sport. I did 
not meet with the ready response I expected from the fish, and 
kept going on up stream trying one pool after another until I 



. LITTLE PILLS 99 

was quite out of sight of the ambulance but still kept going, each 
pool looking more inviting than the one just passed. I finally 
came to an unusually large pool, deep and wide, and that ran 
close to the perpendicular bluff on the opposite side. I had made a 
number of casts when a voice from somewhere called out "What 
luck?" It might have been from the clouds and I would not 
have been more surprised, and at first 1^ could not locate it, but 
looked up and down stream and back over the valley but saw no 
one. Finally just across from me on a big block of rock that 
had become detached from the mountainside and in plain view 
sat a man. His clothing was so near the color of the rock and 
he sat so stalk still that I would never have discovered him if 
he had not made the inquiry. Answering I said, "Not very 
good," but some way I was so startled by that inquiry seemingly 
coming from the unknown and then finding a real man where of 
all places I least expected him, that I think I was a little nervous 
about it, and soon lost interest in fishing and returned to the 
ambulance. He had evidently been watching me as I was going 
up stream but made no other eflfort for closer acquaintance and 
I left him with that one response, "Not very good." 



CHAPTER X. 

A few days after returning to Fort Garland I was ordered 
to report to Major McClave who commanded a troop of cavalry 
and was camped near the top of Sange De Cristo pass. The 
nights were cold and the camp was in every way an unpleasant 
one. We only remained there a few days when we broke camp 
and went down the Veta pass. The Sangre De Cristo and Veta 
passes joined just beyond the top of the range on the west side. 
We camped near La Veta, a Mexican village, the first night. In 
coming down La Veta pass we had a good view of the Spanish 
peaks, a name I remembered in connection with my very limited 
study of geography when a lad, and which for some reason I ex- 
pected to be grand and commanding. After spending a summer 
in the mountains and seeing them in all their rugged grandeur, 
the peaks looked small and their hay-stack tops were disap- 
pointing. We went by easy marches until we reached a point 
on the Purgatory river some forty miles above its mouth where 
we remained in camp about a month. Our camp here was sev- 
eral thousand feet lower than the one near Sangre de Cristo 
pass and was in a fine grove of large cotton-wood trees and by 
comparison was a very comfortable place. The nights were a 
little cool but the days were delightfully pleasant. The Purga- 
tory valley was practically unsettled in those days except near 
Trindad, where there were a number of small ranches but I only 
remember one ranch between our camp and the mouth of the 
river. While in this camp a wind-storm came up one afternoon 
and grew in volume as the evening advanced but we felt secure 
on account of the bluff just across the river to the windward of 
us. However, I could hear it among the tree tops before drop- 
ping to sleep, and I wondered if it could do any arm. When I 
awoke the next morning the ridge pole of my tent was broken, 
and the tent crushed in by some great thing extending obliquely 
upward, and only a few inches above my chest. I hurried out- 
side as quickly as I could and found an immense dead cotton- 



LITTLE PILLS 101 

wood tree lying across my tent with the top caught in the forks 
of another tree few yards away. 

I found both Major McClave and Mr. Williams, his lieutenant, 
very interesting companions. The major had served in the 
ranks before the war, and had been promoted for bravery and 
efficiency in the service. He was a thorough soldier, courteous 
and considerate to everybody, and like all the officers I met from 
the ranks, was very devoted to his men. Mr. Williams was a 
West Point graduate and an accomplished gentleman, and I shall 
always remember my experience with this command with pleas- 
ure. Mr. Williams and I had found a fine bathing pool in the 
river and had frequent occasions to enjoy its chilly but invigorat- 
ing qualities. One day when in the midst of our bath the bugle 
call for "boots and saddles" sounded. We hurried from the 
water, dressed and got to camp in time to find everything ready 
to move. A messenger had arrived in camp bringing word of an 
Indian raid and the killing of cattle at some point down the river 
toward Las Anamis. We kept going until some time after mid- 
night when we were within a few miles of Fort Lyon and from 
there the major and I took the ambulance and went on into 
Fort Lyon to report and get such information as we could, and 
instructions for any further action that was considered neces- 
sary. We got back to our camp just at good daylight and found 
Mr. Williams and the men almost ready for the march. After 
a hurried breakfast we were soon on the way up the Arkansas 
Valley. We followed this valley to where Wild Horse creek enters 
the river, then turned up that creek and marched until near 
sundown when some cattlemen and rangers met us and reported 
that the Indians had turned east and would probably cross the 
Arkansas below Fort Lyon. Right here it is just as well to say 
that cavalry stand a poor show to overtake a band of Indians 
if they have a few miles the start. The Indian pony does not 
eat corn; the cavalry horses must have it or at least some kind 
of grain. Stop and unsaddle your Indian pony, lariat him out 
and give him an hour to rest and graze, and he is ready for 
another jaunt of a half day or more. He is a tough, hardy beast 
and can be forced to keep going when the cavalry horse will 



102 LITTLE PILLS 

simply quit. We returned slowly to Fort Lyon and reported to 
the commanding officer for instructions, and were ordered back 
to Fort Union where Major McClave's troop of cavalry belonged, 
longed. 

There was nothing of special interest on this trip although 
the night we camped at Dick Wooton's there was a heavy snow 
and the major spent a good part of the night looking after the 
comfort of his men and horses. After crossing this spur of the 
mountains the weather was pleasant and the country free from 
snow and we reached Fort Union without further incident. I 
returned by stage to Fort Garland and arrived at that post the 
forepart of December and was there awaiting orders until the 
18th. The weather was cold, Fort Garland being at an altitude 
of about seven thousand feet above sea level, and it was com- 
fortable to be with my wife and little girl, and in good quarters 
again. 

General Kautz had taken General Alexander's place as post 
commander, but Dr. Happersett, the post surgeon, and the other 
officers were the same as when we arrived the preceding April. 
The social features of the post were charming and I hoped it 
would be my good fortune to remain there during the winter, 
but a few days after my arrival orders came for me to report 
to the commanding officer at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, for 
duty. We started on December 18th and the thermometer reg- 
istered eighteen degrees below zero that morning. We were well 
equipped for the trip, having four mules to the ambulance and a 
six-mule team and wagon for our baggage. The question may 
occur to some of my readers how could all your household goods 
be carried in one wagon? We did not have much to carry, par- 
ticularly in the way of furniture. The quarters at the different 
military posts were furnished by the quartermaster with stoves, 
tables, bedsteads and all kinds of furniture that would be cum- 
bersome to move. We carried folding chairs, carpets, bedding 
and numerous household necessities and comforts with us, but 
one wagon was sufficient for this purpose in addition to carrying 
grain and hay for the mules from one government supply station 
to another. On most of the routes traveled there were govern- 



LITTLE PILLS 103 

ment stations where grain and forage were kept for the animals 
used in government transportation. We started early, having 
forty miles to make that day to reach Conejos (Jackrabbit) the 
first government station on the route. We heated bricks for 
our feet and by drawing the curtains around the ambulance, it 
was made quite comfortable. We crossed the Rio Grande on 
the ice and reached Conejos in the evening and had a very com- 
fortable place for the night. We remained one day at Canejos 
for supplies of grain and hay for the mules. For the next three 
days and two nights we were in deep snow all the way, and of 
course made slow progress, and the escort melted snow for water 
for ourselves and the animals during this time. We hoped to 
reach Sa?n Juan on the Rio Grande by the end of the third day, 
but were apprehensive, for we knew we had to cross the Rio 
Chama, a stream that had acquired an unenviable reputation be- 
cause of its quicksand. We reached this stream just at dusk of 
the third day and for the first time in three days saw the friendly 
lamplights at a Mexican village a short distance above the ford. 
This was my first acquaintance with quicksand, and I would know 
better now. We should have unfastened the mules from the 
wagon, and broken the ice, which was not strong enough to hold 
them up, and thus made the way clear so we could cross without 
stopping. To stop is fatal. In place of doing this, we expected 
the mules to break the ice as they went. About the middle of 
the stream was a sand-bar only slightly covered with ice and 
water and the water had been shallow over to this bar, but when 
the mules came into the deep water beyond, the leaders refused 
to break the ice, the team stopped, and the wagon gradually set- 
tled down until the running gear and bed rested on the sand-bar. 
I ordered the team unhitched and the ice broken so we could get 
around with the ambulance, and we made the crossing without 
difficulty. It was then quite dark and I decided to ask for a 
volunteer to remain with the wagon and the balance of us would 
go on to San Juan. 

I called the men together, and asked if any one of them 
would volunteer to stay with the wagon over night. An Irish- 
man stepped out and said, 'Yis Doctor, I will stay with it." It 



104 LITTLE PILLS 

seems to me that in a case like this, or for that matter in any 
emergency, one can always depend on the Irishman. I knew his 
habits at the post, for he was in the guardhouse occasionally for 
drunkenness, so I said to him, "Look here, this is not an easy 
job. If those Mexicans up there knew this wagon was in here 
they might give you trouble, and if they found you drunk they 
would probably kill you and loot the wagon. "Now I am going to 
leave a bottle of whiskey with you, for it is a very cold night 
and you will need some before morning, so be careful and do not 
take too much of it. Get out and walk when you get too cold to 
sleep but don't get drunk for your life may be in danger if you 
are not able to take care of yourself." "Yis Sir,, Doctor, I under- 
stand that sir, and I will keep sober, sir, and I will take care 
of the stuff all right, sir." We left him there and the balance 
of the escort with the six mule team, and my wife and baby and 
I in the ambulance, started on to San Juan some six miles away. 
We got off the road as we neared the station, and our ambu- 
lance got into an irrigation ditch and turned over on one side, 
but did no harm and we soon had it right again, and after some 
trouble in finding a road, finally reaching San Juan about mid- 
night. We had wandered around a good deal in trying to find 
the road again. 

The following day the escort returned to the Rio Grande, 
and found the Irishman all right and only about half of the 
whiskey gone. He had fully merited all my confidence. They 
unloaded the wagon and slid the contents across the river on the 
ice, and by digging and prying with the tools they had taken 
from the station, and hitching all ten mules to the wagon, they 
drew it out the quick-sand and across the river and arrived at 
the station with everything in good shape about dark that eve- 
ning. The morning before Christmas my wife and I concluded 
to ride to Santa Fe about twenty miles away for breakfast. It 
was a stinging cold morning, and we had to go over a little 
mountain range on the way, but the roads were hard and smooth 
as a pavement, and we made the trip at a clipping gait, but were 
thoroughly chilled by the time we reached Santa Fe. There was 
no fire in our room and I went to the landlord, Alex McDowell 



LITTLE PILLS 105 

and asked him to send us something to warm us up. In a few 
minutes a man came in with a tray and glasses and something he 
called Tom-and-Jerry and hoped we would like it. I think I never 
tasted anything so delicious, and I believe my wife appreciated 
it as much as I did, and the effect was marvelous. We were 
soon warm and comfortable, and by comparison with the ex- 
perience of the past few days, it seemed a paradise indeed. This 
was my first acquaintance with Tom-and-Jerry, and while I be- 
came better acquainted with these gentlemen afterwards, we were 
never very cordial friends but I never met them under such 
favorable conditions as on the morning after that cold ride over 
the mountains. We did some shopping on the 24th and remained 
over Christmas at the hotel. The morning after Christmas we 
again started on our way to Fort Stanton. 



CHAPTER XL 

The trip from Santa Fe to Fort Stanton was not an attrac- 
tive one. There was not much snow and no mountains to cross 
but the route was uninhabited and dreary, consisting of alternate 
stretches of timber and alkali lands, until we neared Fort Stan- 
ton when the timber improved in quality, and the country gen- 
erally was more inviting. We reached Fort Stanton on the sec- 
ond of January and were at once assigned to comfortable quar- 
ters which we occupied the following day but stayed with a 
brother officer's family the first night. I found Fort Stanton a 
very desirable post at which to serve. Major Clendenning was 
in command and Doctor Fitch was post surgeon until my ar- 
rival. The fort and military reservation were beautifully located 
on what was then the Mescalero Apache reservation in the White 
mountains, El Capitan being the nearest peak, and on a little 
stream called Rio Bonito, (pretty little river) and it was an ex- 
ceptionally pretty stream. Anywhere east it would have been 
called a creek or branch. It was a mountain stream of clear 
cold water and the post was supplied with water through a ditch 
taken out from the river at some distance above the post, and 
carried to the highest point on the parade ground, and from there 
distributed each way around the parade ground and then taken 
to the corral and the stables lower down the valley. In front 
of each officer's quarters a barrel was sunk in the ditch to a 
depth where the water would almost reach the top of the staves 
a^nd the up and down stream sides were cut away as low as the 
bottom of the ditch, thus allowing the water to pass through 
freely. Small trout were often dipped up in the water taken 
from these barrels. Fort Stanton is located at an altitude of a 
little over six thousand feet and is not only a beautiful location 
but is a very healthy post. I^t was abandoned long ago as a mil- 
itary post but is still owned by the government and used as a 
sanitarium for tuberculosis. I have visited it since it was con- 
verted in to a sanitarium, and for cleanliness and general sani- 



LITTLE PILLS 107 

tary conditions it did not compare with the post when used for 
military purposes. 

In those days game was plentiful in the mountains and the 
duck shooting along the pretty little river was exceptionally 
good. 

What was afterwards known as the Lincoln County War 
was just then in its incipiency. Considerable shooting was done 
between the cattle and sheep men, and the death of a sheep- 
herder — always a Mexican — or a cattleman, was of frequent oc- 
currence. Word came to the post one evening, that a deputy 
sheriff had been shot while attempting to settle some difficulty 
between the cattle and the sheep men, and a surgeon was re- 
quested to go to Lincoln, the county seat some ten miles down 
the valley to see him. Major Clendenning sent for me and ex- 
plained the matter, but said if he were in my place he would 
not go, as those Mexicans would just as leave take a shot at me 
as anybody else. He said, however, that if I decided to go I 
should have the ambulance and any help I needed. I decided no 
help was necessary, but took the ambulance and driver and went 
to Lincoln that night. Mr. Mills, the deputy sheriff who had 
been shot had a half-brother at the post by the name of Stan- 
ley and I had heard the story of one of their shooting experiences 
when little fellows. They were practising with pistols and had 
become so expert that one day they tried the experiment of 
holding something out in one hand for the other to shoot at, 
but as this was not exciting enough, one of them extended his 
arm and pointed out his index finger and said to the other: 
"See, if you can clip the end of that." He clipped a little too 
much for I had seen Stanley's hand and the finger was off at the 
first joint from the end. "You fool, you, you took too much. 
Now give me a chance." The other being willing to play fair, 
extended his finged the same way and lost the same amount of 
finger. This was the story, and I was curious to see Mr. Mills 
hand which I took good care to observe while dressing his wound 
and found it almost exactly like Stanley's. Mr. Mills' wound 
was by a shot that entered near the heart, struck a rib and did 



108 LITTLE PILLS 

not enter the plural cavity, but followed the rib around and came 
out on the back and was not a very serious wound. 

The Sutler's store at Fort Stanton was up-stream some dis- 
tance and just around the point of a little canon that led down 
to the river. A path from the corner of the parade ground led 
up to the store but there was only a narrow space between the 
point of the canon and the ditch that supplied the post with 
water. There was also a bridge across the ditch at the Sutler's 
store, for the convenience of getting in and taking out goods. 
One dark night I had been up to the store and started home, 
and after going a short distance, I concluded I had crossed the 
ditch on the bridge, instead of going along the narrow strip be- 
tween the ditch and canon. To save time and retracing of steps 
I concluded to jum into the ditch. I knew it was wide and re- 
quired a good jump but I found that instead of jumping the 
ditch, I had jumped off the bluff into the canon. Fortunately 
it had been made a dumping ground for chips and trash from the 
wood-yard, and I landed on this trash and rolled the balance 
of the way to the bottom of the canon among the rocks, prob- 
ably twenty-five or thirty feet. My first thought was that I was 
seriously hurt, but after groaning a while and finding no bones 
broken, I got up and felt my way out at the top of the canon 
near the Sutler's store. I was very sore for a few days but no 
serious injuries resulted. 

In March of this year Captain Fechet (pronounced Fe-sha, 
accent on the last syllable), with his troop of cavalry, was or- 
dered to go over on the Jornada del Muerto, and try to find a 
shorter route across that desert from Fort Stanton to Fort 
Selden, and I was sent along. We took the usual route to Fort 
McRae, where I again met Dr. Lyons, the post surgeon, whom I 
had visited at this point when I was post surgeon at Fort Craig 
in 1869. We found the doctor at dinner when we arrived. The 
cloth was spread at one end of the table and just beyond the 
cloth, at the farther end, was a human skull, with the neces- 
sary instruments, which the doctor had been dissecting. It struck 
me as a rather strange mixture of diet and scientific investiga- 
tion. It is hardly necessary to say that the doctor was not a 



LITTLE PILLS 109 

married man, for no woman would stand for that sort of table 
decoration, but would probably prefer a bunch of flowers as a 
center-piece for the table. Some unfortunate had been fished 
out of the river, and no relations having been found, the body 
was considered of service for a better knowledge of anatomy. 

From Fort McRae we went to the Aleman, or as it was better 
known, Jack Martin's, where we stayed over night, and from 
there we went to Fort Selden and remained several days. While 
there the captain and I made a trip to Las Cruces where we re- 
mained over night, and had a very pleasant evening with some 
Catholic priests, where we were cordially received and enter- 
tained. On our return to Fort Selden we again took up the 
march to Fort Stanton but did not leave the beaten track either 
going or coming. We had taken some half-dozen Mescalero 
Apache Indians along with us as guides and scouts, but I could 
never see that we accomplished anything by the trip, or that 
we made any effort to do so. 

Along about the first of April I received a suit of clothes 
from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, that I had ordered the previous 
September upon my return from the summer camp on the Rio 
Grande. It had not occurred to me that I might have changed 
some in physique, but when I got the clothes I found that I 
could only wear the pants by putting a V-shape in the back of 
the waistband and I could only wear the vest by inserting pieces 
below the arm-holes, but the coat was entirely too small to be 
of any practical service. My experience in the mountains had 
evidently made quite a different type of man out of me, and I 
should have had my measure taken again before sending orders 
to the tailor. 

Soon after our return from the trip to find a new route 
across the Jornada, I received a letter from Doctor Lyons ask- 
ing me to exchange stations with him. I wrote back that I would 
make the change if he would make the application, which he did, 
and orders soon came directing the change. We started from 
Stanton the latter part of April, with the usual ambulance, and 
wagon and baggage, and an escort to care for us on the way. 
Between the White mountains and the lower range to the west 



110 LITTLE PILLS 

is quite a wide valley which is called the Malpais (or bad coun- 
try) near the center of which is a lava flow a few hundred yards 
wide. The crater, or peak from which it came is not in the 
mountain range as one would naturally suppose it to be but 
stands out near the middle of the valley, maybe ten miles above 
where we crossed. The outlines of the streams are quite dis- 
tinct until some distance below, where it is lost in a great white 
plain of alkali. There had been much work done to make a road 
across this lava flow passable for vehicles, but it was still very 
rough when we crossed it, so much so that my wife preferred to 
walk, and nearly wore her shoe soles out in doing so. When did 
this lava flow occur? I don't know. Maybe ten thousand years 
ago, but it looked as though it might have been last week. 

There were quite a number of little cone-shaped mounds 
in this valley, and I examined some of those close to the road. 
They varied in size, and none that I saw were more than ten or 
twelve feet in height, and they all had craters, containing black- 
ish looking water. In some of them the water seemed to be 
higher than the valley in which they were located. 

We camped on the second night in the foothills of the San 
Andres range, and the following evening at the Oho De Anija. 
These springs were interesting because of the great amount of 
painted and broken pottery to be found nearby. I think some 
excavating might bring to light whole pieces of value to the 
archaeologist. The spring is located only a few miles from 
Para j a on the Rio Grande, and at the extreme northern limit of 
the Jornada del Muerto, and the next day we arrived at Fort 
McRae. 



CHAPTER XII. 

McRae was a one company post, and located on a little 
bench of land at the side of the canon that led down to the Rio 
Grande from the Frau Christobel mountains. There were 
no square for a parade ground but all buildings faced toward the 
canon, of which at this point was not abrupt but sloped gradu- 
ally to the bottom. 

The officers' quarters were very comfortable, being built of 
heavy adobe walls, and covered with dirt, consequently were warm 
in winter and cool in summer. The rooms were large and had the 
usual jaspa floors common to the military posts along the Rio 
Grande. Government blankets are first laid on these floors and 
over them is laid the carpet and both are nailed down with lath 
or shingle nails, with leather heads, to hold the carpet in place. 
There was a fireplace in both living and dining rooms and water 
was obtained at a spring in the canon, a short distance away. 
While the quarters were comfortable the outlook and surround- 
ings were anything but attractive. The view from the front 
porch was of a bleak cactus covered ridge across the canon, and 
this was limited in extent and back of the post the canon rose 
abruptly to a great height. Up the canon was the barracks of 
the men, and farther up was the Sutler's store. Below the offi- 
cers' quarters, was the quartermaster and commissary store- 
houses and corrals and stables. 

For some time we were quite reconciled to the situation. 
Both the commanding officer. Captain Farnsworth and his lieu- 
tenant, a Mr. Carlton, were bachelors, and were courteous and 
pleasant gentlemen. They did not remain long, how- 
ever, after our arrival at the post, but were superseded 
by Captain Kauffmann and Mr. Fountain, the latter a West 
Pointer, but Captain Kauffman was raised from the ranks, and 
to me never seemed to fit the promoted position he held. Mr. 
Fountain on the contrary, I thought, gave promise of becoming 
a distinguished officer. Until they came, my wife was the only 
officer's wife at the post, and with the addition of Mrs. Kauffman 



112 LITTLE PILLS 

it could hardly be considered a great social center. We made 
the most of it, however, and were fairly well satisfied with our 
position. 

During the early part of the summer we attended an en- 
tertainment given by the men at the barracks, and our little 
girl caught cold. At first we thought it only a temporary ill- 
ness and that she would soon be better, but in this we were dis- 
appointed. She gradually lost appetite and grew weaker and I 
wrote to Dr. Boughter, post surgeon at Fort Craig, requesting 
him to come and see her, which he did. We concluded the water 
at the post was bad for her, as it was strongly impregnated with 
alkali, and we though it best to take her out to Jack Martin's 
ranch, where we knew the water was good. Captain Kauffman 
was very considerate about the proposed change, and we agreed 
that I should return to the post three times a week to look 
after any who needed medical attention. This trip could be 
made in one day on horse-back, the distance for the round trip 
being about forty miles. We got out there the latter part of 
July, but within a few days realized more fully the serious na- 
ture of our little daughter's illness. Dr. Boughter came from 
Fort Craig to see her but could give us no encouragement. 

The Scotch are a superstitious folk, and up to the age of 
fourteen I was raised in an atmosphere of superstition. They 
had signs and omens, and attributed a personality to everything, 
animate and inanimate. While they denied a belief in spirits and 
hob-goblins, I am satisfied these things influenced their lives. 
I remember two old crones at an uncle's, wizened up old maids, 
that I think were no relation, but just lived there, who used 
to tell us little ones spook and ghost stories until I was afraid 
to go to bed in the next room, or out of doors at night. It 
seemed to be in the blood and Walter Scott's books are full of it. 
This may explairi in a way my hope that something would 
happen that would bring our little one back to health again. My 
frequent trips to the post and sitting up at night to give my wife 
a little rest, which she so sorely needed, together with my 
anxiety, had probably made me morbid, for one day, August 
14th, as I remember, I was on my way to the post. It was a 



LITTLE PILLS 113 

very hot day and the atmosphere was shimmering with radiated 
heat, and not a living thing was to be seen over that vast, deso- 
late Jornada del Muerto, except maybe a lizard scurrying across 
the road, and I was half-way or more to the head of that canon 
in which the post was located, when a little grayish-brown bird 
suddenly appeared from somewhere, and fluttered over the horses' 
head just out of reach of my hand. I accepted it at once and 
without question, as a messenger sent to me, and my anxiety 
was to interpret its message. I tried to reach it with my hand, 
but it kept just out of reach, and presently lit in the road in 
front. I immediately got off my horse, and taking the lariat 
rope in my hand, walked up to it, but it kept moving out of 
the way, but only just out of reach. I again got on my horse 
but had no sooner done so, than it came back again and flut- 
tered over the horse's head. From there it flew to a cactus 
bush by the roadside, and I got off my horse again and walked 
up to the bush and took my canteen — no one travels through 
such a country without a canteen of water — and holding it up 
over the bush poured out a little stream of water. The bird at 
once gathered from the leaves, such drops as lodged, and seemed 
greatly delighted. I then pressed my left hand, back downward, 
into the sand, and holding the canteen up poured a little stream 
of water into the palm of my hand. The bird at once left its 
perch, and flew down and lit near my hand, and after a little 
debating with herself, hopped up on my hand and drank, and at 
each swallow would look up at me as if to say, 'Oh, I am so 
thankful." I was greatly comforted and got on my horse again 
feeling that my hopes would be realized, and that I would find 
my little child on the road to recovery, upon my return in the 
evening. I had only gone a short distance when the little bird 
again flew around in front of me and again fluttered its wings 
just out of reach of my hand. I got off again and this time 
did not take the lariat rope down, but merely stepped up by the 
horse's head, stooped down and pressed my hand in the sand as 
before, and the bird did not hesitate, but came at once, and stood 
on many hand and drank the water, and when its thirst was 
fully satisfied it hopped away, and I got on my horse and went 



114 LITTLE PILLS 

on to the post. When I returned that evening I found our little 
child no better and she died that night. 

A messenger was sent to the post and the ambulance came 
the following day with a little coffin made at the quartermaster's 
and the trip back to the post was to us indeed the "Journey of 
Death." Our home was so desolate that I became more morbid 
than ever, and was soon taken down with typhoid dysentery, 
and Dr. Boughter came from the Fort Craig to wait on me. My 
recovery was very slow and I was indifferent to anything that 
might happen. My wife at last became discouraged and she and 
Captain Kauffman talked the situation over, and after consulting 
Dr. Boughter concluded to have me taken to Fort Craig for 
treatment. I was not informed of their conclusion, and when 
they told me the ambulance was at the door, and a bed in it and 
that I as going to Fort Craig, it did not even interest me. If 
they had told me I was going to the cemetery I would have been 
just as well satisfied with the arrangement, although they thought 
I would be interested because of having been post surgeon there 
some years before. After I was at Fort Craig a few days, I 
began to take some interest in life and thought I would like 
to see what changes had been made, and the more I thought 
about it, the more interest I took until I finally wanted to see 
for myself. With this awakening I began to have some appetite 
for food, and I soon began to gain strength and as I improved 
I wanted to cross the river and see my old hunting grounds. All 
these things undoubtedly contributed to my recovery for I soon 
made rapid progress toward good health again. The doctor had 
given us his quarters to occupy while there and there were hand- 
somely furnished and we were made most comfortable. It was 
then the latter part of September and the nights were cool and 
the days pleasant. We took our meals at the officers' mess and 
had good things to eat, and I shall always remember how delic- 
ious the pigeon squabs were to me. Before returning to Fort 
McRae the doctor and I planned to hunt across the river. One 
of the officers had a gun he would loan us, and the doctor said 
the blacksmith had one, and he had no doubt he would loan it. 
I preferred going for it myself, as I wanted to see the shop and 



LITTLE PILLS 115 

house close to the bluff where the blacksmith lived. The black- 
smith was very well pleased to loan his gun, but said one barrel 
was loaded, and he shot it off and handed the gun to me, saying, 
"Now it is all right." It was a muzzle-loader and after wiping 
it out carefully at the doctor's quarters I found one of the tubes 
were stopped up. I put a cap on the tube and in place of taking 
the gun out of doors, or pointing it in the fireplace, I merely 
turned the muzzle down toward the carpet and pulled the trigger. 
A report followed that astonished the doctor, my wife and my- 
self, who were all taking interest in the preparation for the hunt. 
The shot tore through the carpet and into the jaspa floor and 
sent the plaster flying in all directions, and made a hole in the 
floor big enough to bury a small-sized dog. Another instance of 
where the gun that was not loaded, did serious damage, but fortu- 
nately no one was hurt. 

The post had changed very little since I was there five years 
before but I took great interest in seeing everything. Doctor 
Boughter was a bachelor, a man of ability in his profession, an 
accomplished gentleman, and a friend in our great affliction. 

On our return to Fort McRae, while I felt a great repugnance 
to ever seeing the place again, I was more resigned to what I 
considered the inevitable that is, that death comes to everybody, 
is one of nature's laws, and is the culminating process, just as 
birth is the beginning of life. When we reached the head of the 
canon leading down to the post I was able to look upon the in- 
cident of my experience with the little bird, from a very different 
point of view. 

It was now clear enough to me, that there was nothing 
miraculous or unnatural about it, but that for some cause it had 
simply become separated from the flock to which it belonged, for 
they are generally found in flocks along with cattle. I think it 
was the female and may have gone to some other bird's nest to 
deposit its egg, as is its habit, for I had studied it closely while 
drinking out of my hand, and recognized it as one of the cow- 
birds or buntings, and I have since been able to identify it as 
belonging among the blackbirds and orioles or the icteridae of the 
ornothologist, its special division being Molothrus Aster, a divis- 



116 LITTLE PILLS 

ion found in Texas and Southern New Mexico, but I think not 
much farther north. The sexes are difficult to distinguish at a 
distance, differing in this respect from their near relatives far- 
ther north, where the male is a glossy black with chocolate col- 
ored head and neck. Whatever the cause may have been this 
one was evidently lost, and was famishing for water, and recog- 
nized the horse as a friend, and in no way could have considered 
me in that relation, it came to my hand simply and only as a 
matter of necessity. It was pleasant to relieve the thirst of the 
little lost bird, but I shall never again think of it as in any way 
supernatural. ' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Our quarters were just as we had left them but with the 
added feeling of desolation, and from that time we frequently 
discussed the question of leaving the service. It being then well 
toward winter we deferred it until spring, and we spent the time 
until then performing our duties in a perfunctory way, and plan- 
ning and rejecting plans as we made them, being undecided 
where to locate. I spent a part of the time in hunting with more 
or less success, but more as a recreation than as a matter of 
interest. On one of these trips I killed three antelopes with two 
shots, being the only ones seen that day. I managed to get in 
good range and when the first one fell the other two ran together 
and stood looking at the fallen one. They stood so that a shot 
through the flank of one would hit the other just back f the 
shoulder. I dressed the first one and got it on the horse and 
found the second some two hundred yards away, but by the time 
I had it on the horse it was too dark t otrack the third. Next 
morning I went out and found only the bones and some pieces of 
the hide, the wolves having cared for the rest of it. On another 
occasion I took an orderly with me to care for my horse in case I 
found occasion to stalk any game, but when we got into a valley 
which was the customary route for l,ndians from the White 
mountains on the east, to the Magdalenas west of the river, some 
horsemen came in at the head of the valley, and set up a yell and 
at that distance we took them for Indians and did not wait 
for a closer acquaintance but made for the post with all pos- 
sible speed. -«i 

My wife visited that winter at Fort Selden with Mrs. Con- 
rad, wife of Lieutenant Conrad, who was quartermaster at Fort 
Stanton when we were there, and who died at sea on his way 
back from the Spanish war in Cuba. 

We were in the habit at Fort McRae of trading an army 
ration to which I was entitled, in addition to my pay, to Mexi- 
cans for vegetables, eggs, etc., or paying cash as the occasion 
offered. One day a Mexican brought a grain sack full of onions 



118 LITTLE PILLS 

and we weighed them and found they weighed a little over 
forty-one pounds. I agreed to pay him four cents a pound, but 
said to him we will call it forty pounds and allow the balance 
for the weight of the sack. He could not speak English but I 
could talk Spanish enough to make him understand and he would 
nod his head and say "Bueno"' (Good) but when I counted out 
the money he did not seem satisfied. I went over it repeatedly 
showing it was one dollar and sixty cents and he would nod his 
head and say 'Bueno" but went away and brought another Mex- 
ican with him who understood and talked English, and when 
he heard the transaction repeated he called his fellow country- 
man a fool and they walked away together. I counted the on- 
ions after they had gone, and there were just twenty-four of 
them. I like to tell this story to my friends, for while they 
smile their assent, there is an expression on their faces that 
it at least suggestive. Two or three of the onions that I meas- 
ured were over eighteen inches in circumference. These onions 
were raised in the Rio Grande valley and were as crisp as celery, 
and comparatively free from the characteristic sting of the or- 
dinary onion. Eggs were fifty cents per dozen and if one did 
not need any today, they would take them back home, and per- 
haps bring them tomorrow at the same price, but would not take 
less. We paid one dollar per pound for butter to Mrs. Jack 
Martin who sent it to us by the messenger who went there 
for our mail, and it was very choice butter. 

At the Sutler's store one day I was introduced to a Mr. 
Garcia, a youg man of fine appearance, and who could talk 
English well, who had returned from the university for his va- 
cation. I found him very interesting and intelligent, and while 
we were talking, Mr. Ayers, the post trader, brought us some 
native wine which we sipped while in conversation. He belonged 
to a wealthy family of Spanish descent and was quite a differ- 
ent type from the ordinary Mexican, and would compare favor- 
ably with our average university student. After he had gone 
Mr. Ayers told me his name in full was "Hasoos Christo Garcia." 
I spell it this way to give the Spanish pronunciation, and not the 
Spanish spelling. In the middle name the accent is on the first 



LITTLE PILLS 119 

syllable. In English the name would be Jesus Christ Garcia, 
and this is not mentioned in this startling way, in any spirit of 
irreverence, for a name that is held sacred over a great part of 
the world, but is done for the purpose of showing the differ- 
ence in the customs of different countries. Jesus Christ is al- 
most as common a given name among the Mexicans as James or 
John is with us. 

While at Fort McRae Mr. Fountain had heard of a beautiful 
place on the Rio Polomas, a little stream that enters the Rio 
Grande from the west a few miles below the post, and that he 
thought might be worth investigating. I agreed to join him and 
we had a few troopers detached as an escort, and went to see it. 
On the way we passed through the little Mexican village of 
Polomas, where a Jew had established a business and who had 
told Mr. Fountain of the proposed place of visit. He joined us 
and acted as guide for the trip. On the way while working our 
way through a thick undergrowth Mr. Fountain and I became 
separated from the men and came out on a pretty open park of a 
few acres in extent, about the middle of which was an immense 
cinnamon bear, apparently waiting to see what caused the dis- 
turbance in the brush. On our coming into the open he took 
to his heels and we followed, the men having joined us, and firing 
our pistols and shouting, but when my horse caught the scent of 
the bear, he just stopped and stood there trembling with fright, 
and all my efforts to make him go by spurring and cuffing him, 
were unavailing. I could not move him, but sat there and awaited 
his pleasure. After a bit he began to move cautiously but was 
much frightened, and I did not join the crowd until they had 
chased the bear into the rocks at the foot of the canon, and had 
returned to the place we intended to visit. It was a beautiful 
place indeed, and a beautiful stream of water came out from the 
side of the bluff some twenty feet above the valley, and mean- 
andered down to the main stream. The valley was not wide but 
impressed both Mr. Fountain and myself, as a desirable place 
to establish a ranch, which he was desirous of doing for a brother 
he wished to set up in business. I agreed to join him in the 
enterprise, and we sent for a Studebaker wagon and the neces- 



120 LITTLE PILLS 

sary implements and outfit for starting a ranch. I afterwards 
disposed of my interest to Mr. Fountain, and have since learned 
that he had his brother come out, and fitted him up with stock, 
etc., sufficient for a start, but that the Indians took a part in 
the affair; destroyed his ranch and killed his cattle. I have 
since then, often thought of it as a desirable place for a cattle 
ranch. 

In the spring of 1875, there having been no medical exam- 
ining board ordered, and so far as we knew no prospect of one, 
we fully decided to try our lives in a different way, and made 
preparations accordingly. I ordered a metallic casket for the 
body of our little daughter, believing that the post would soon 
be abandoned, and we could not bear the idea of leaving her in 
that wretched place, and the first part of May we packed such 
household goods as we thought desirable to take with us, only 
leaving such as I might need after my wife should start, it being 
by intention to go during the summer or early fall. My wife 
started about the middle of May and soon afterwards the casket 
came, and the captain gave me a detail of men to take up the 
body of our little girl and place it in the quartermaster's store- 
house until we should decide where to have it shipped. This we 
were to do after I) should join my wife and decided on a location 
for a home. My wife had gone to her old friend's home west of 
Oswego, Kansas, where she had stopped on a previous occasion 
when we thought of leaving the service. On application. Doctor 
Lyon returned to his old post at Fort McRae and I went to Stan- 
ton in July ad about the first of September together with Mr. 
Clark, who was going on leave of absence, I proceeded to the 
end of the railroad at Las Animas, Colorado, and thence to 
Leavenworth, Kansas, where I reported to the medical director of 
the department and left the service October 30th, 1875. 

Upon my return to Fort Stanton from Fort McRae I found 
Mr. Stanley, the one who had his finger shot off when a boy, was 
just able to hobble about again from an experience he had with 
a cannamon bear. He had gone out to some ranch where they 
were losing some of their stock, particularly their pigs, by what 
they thought to be a bear, and Stanley went out to kill it. He 



LITTLE PILLS 121 

was an excellent shot, was fearless and deliberate and found the 
bear as he expected, but in some unaccountable way which he 
could not explain, he failed to stop it, and the result was most 
disastrous to himself. It had torn one side of his face away, 
and had broken both legs and one arm, before leaving him. They 
found him the next day and brought him to a hospital and he 
was able to get around on crutches when I saw him, but would 
be a cripple for life. The ranchmen went out and finished the 
bear, but it was found he had nine shots through his body be- 
fore giving up the fight. 

The military reservation at Fort Stanton was the largest of 
any post at which I served, and is located as before mentioned 
on what was then known as the Mescalero Apache Indian reser- 
vation. These Indians were considered friendly, and so far as 
I know have remained so, and they are the only tribe of Indians 
of which I have acquaintance who cremate their dead. I was 
invited one day to go with the hay contractor, who intended 
making the rounds of his various hay camps, and on the way we 
passed through an Indian camp not far from the post at which 
there was a sick Indian. We stopped to inquire as to his condi- 
tion. It seems that a day or so before they had gone to the post 
for medicine, and had said the patient was suffering great pain, 
and asked for some physic. The post surgeon, a Spaniard by 
birth, and educated abroad, understood the term pfiysic in its 
generic sense and not as it is so universally used by us, and had 
sent him opiates, when a cathartic was probably indicated. When 
we saw him that day, which we did from our saddles, as we did 
not dismount, he was greatly swollen up, and when we passed 
the same neighborhood a few days afterwards, the Indian had 
died and his tent and all his belongings including a pony to ride, 
had been burned and the band had moved across the river and 
estabHshed a new camp. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
(Social Life at the Military Posts.) 

The social life at the military posts on the frontier, nearly 
a half century ago, was necessarily very limited. Except at 
Fort Sill, I served at no post at which more than two companies 
of troops comprised the garrison, and even in these cases there 
was not always the full complement of officers, some probably 
being on detached service, or maybe on leave of absence. As 
before remarked, Fort McRae was only a one company post, and 
at no time were there more than three officers, and there were 
only two officers' wives. There were no social relations outside 
of the post, and no effort or disposition to form acquaintances. 
The nearest military post was fifty or more miles away, and the 
exception to the usual dull routine of life in such an isolated 
place, was when some fellow officer happened to come our 
way, enroute to some other post, maybe for assignment to duty 
or maybe on detached service. Another exception was when the 
paymaster made his appearance to pay off the garrison, which 
he did every two months. These were always enjoyable oc- 
casions, and we would sit up late and talk about everything of 
interest at the different posts, or of what may have been seen 
or heard on the way. This was the most isolated and desolate 
of all the posts at which I served. It was about twenty miles 
from the southern overland stage line, and we had to send a mes- 
senger from the post for our mail which we did three times a 
week. Magazines and such reading matter as could be brought 
by mail helped cheer our lonely lives, so that taken altogether, 
it was a good deal better than being in the penitentiary. 

At Fort Garland, though only two companies were sta- 
tioned there during my service at the post, there were about the 
full complement of officers, several of whom were married, and 
it proved to be un unusually pleasant place socially. There was 
no formality, and so far as I know this was true at all the mili- 
tary posts on the frontier, except at Fort Craig where my wife 



LITTLE PILLS 123 

was not with me, but on the contrary there was a feeling of 
mutual interest and sympathy that made it seem like one family. 
We would meet at some officer's quarters for dinner or luncheon, 
and maybe at some other officer's quarters in the evening to 
play a social game of cards, and the officers' wives would make 
informal visits with each other and maybe spend an hour or 
so, very much as if they were sisters. 

Fort Sill was one of the largest military posts in the service 
at that time, and there were twenty or more officers there, prob- 
ably half of whom were married and had their families with 
them. It will be readily seen that this made quite a social center. 

There were frequent military dances or "hops" as they were 
called in the service. There were also card parties, not always 
by invitation, but maybe a half-dozen would be talking together, 
and would decide to drop into some officer's quarters for a game 
of cards, others were likely to drop in also, so that sometimes 
there would be quite a crowd of us together to spend the evening. 
I thought the informality of these meetings added very much 
to their charm. 

There was a good library at this post which was liberally 
patronized by the officers and their families, and also by the 
enlisted men. 

A jockey club was formed among the officers and a race- 
course laid out on the flat south of the post, and race meetings 
were held on Saturday afternoons, which afforded a great deal 
of pleasure and amusement. In one of these races which was 
to take place in the course of a month, it was agreed that each 
officer should ride his own horse. The difference in the weight 
of the riders it was thought, would be an important factor in 
determining the results. Major Van de Weyle weighed one hun- 
dred and ninety pounds while Mr. Lebo weighed only one hun- 
dred and fifteen pounds. They all had good horses and the race 
was looked forward to with great interest. The major was jol- 
lied a good deal about his weight, but he insisted that he would 
be able to train down, and he would show them what his horse, 
which was a fine one, could do. The race-course was a mile in 
length and it was supposed the heavyweights would stand no 



124 LITTLE PILLS 

show, but Captain Walsh, who weighed one hundred and sixty- 
five pounds, won the race and Major Van de Weyle, who had 
increased six pounds in weight, came in fourth, in a bunch of 
seven, who started in the race. 

In addition to the social life at the post, the fishing and 
hunting were good for those of us who cared to indulge in that 
kind of sport. Both Medicine Bluff and Cache creeks were fine 
fishing streams, and I found congenial company in one or two 
of the officers who enjoyed the fishing as much as I did my- 
self. Among those most pleasantly remembered, was a Mr. 
Pratt, a lieutenant in one of the cavalry companies at the post 
He was an expert fisherman and a cordial good fellow and I 
have always thought of our fishing trips with pleasure. 

After we left Fort Sill he was detached from his command 
and put in charge of the educational interests of the Indians. 

He became a distinguished officer in this work. When still 
a lieutenant he established the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa., 
a well known industrial school, in 1879, and was superintendent 
until 1904. In 1916, when my wife and I were on our golden 
wedding trip we met him again at Nye Beach, Oregon, and 
were pleased to renew our acquaintance after more than forty- 
five years. 

His distinguished services raised him to the rank of briga- 
dier general, and he is now on the retired list of the army. 

At Camp Limestone there were three officers and two of- 
ficers' wives. We had acquaintances at Fort Scott and Girard, 
who either visited us or made the customary calls. These, with 
the officers and others who came in the shooting season, made 
up the social features of the camp. 

In those days drinking was far more prevalent, both in the 
army and out of it, than it is today. I| think none but the old 
people of today can have the correct "view-point" of the dif- 
ference in which the use of alcoholic beverages was considered 
fifty years ago and now. At that time it was not considered 
harmful, but rather commendable, if not taken to excess, as a 
means of promoting social intercourse, and except at Fort Sill 
it was to be had at all the post trader's stores at the military 



LITTLE PILLS 125 

posts on the frontier, and at most of them it was on the side- 
board or on the mantle over the fire-place, in the officers' bil- 
liard room free to those who cared to use it. Of course, even in 
those days, there were those who talked very energetically if 
not violently against the use of it and some preachers would 
even tell you you would go to hell if you drank it. But people 
don't scare easily, and you would maybe think about it and take 
another drink, concluding that maybe there is no hell, or if there 
is you won't go there, or maybe the preacher didn't know any- 
thing about it anyway. Since then the scientific medical man has 
come to the front. He does not try to scare you, but he has some 
scientific facts which he has fully proven, and tells you about 
them, among these are: it promotes hardening of the arteries 
(Arterio Sclerosis) ; it produces fatty degeneration and other 
diseases of the liver ; it impairs digestion ; it interferes with the 
assimilation of food; it impairs heart acton, and has many other 
injurious effects on the system, such as preparing it for fatal 
results in pneumonia and most of the acute inflammatory dis- 
eases. 

He appeals to your reason in place of to your fears, and you 
are bound to take notice. The result is a vast difference in pub- 
lic opinion regarding its use then and now. 

In the army it was used almost exclusively in a social way. 
There were occasional excesses, but these were not of frequent 
occurrence and there was one restraining influence; the fear of 
court-martial. 

It will be readily understood that there were so-called "black 
sheep" in the army as well as in the churches, and in the fra- 
ternal orders. In the army, however, there was no hesitancy 
in getting rid of them, a thing I have seldom known to be done 
either in the churches or in the fraternal orders, and this was 
by means of court-martial. No matter what the specific charges 
may have been, there is generally, if not always added this one: 
"Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," This it will 
be readily seen covers a wide range, and permits thorough in- 
vestigation of character and the very terms of this charge in- 



126 LITTLE PILLS 

dicates not only the high character that is expected, but that is 
demanded of an officer in the service. 

I had been in the army nearly seven years with no chance 
for promotion, and while feeling some doubt as to my success 
in private life we felt it to be the best thing to leave the service. 
We decided to live at Girard, Kansas, and came to this place 
in November of that year. 

Two things have particularly impressed me, in looking 
back over the nearly half century since I entered the service — 
one is the amazing development of the west, and the other is the 
wonderful evolution in the practice of medicine and surgery. As 
an example of the first, take Kansas — not because it is Kansas, 
but because it is typical of the great west. Population in 1870, 
364,399; in 1914, 1,677,106. Wheat crop in 1871, 4,614,924 bush- 
els; in 1914, 180,925,885 bushels. And other crops in proportion. 
The western half of the state was then practically uninhabited. 
Today it is the great wheat belt of the country. 

When I entered the service people died wholesale from dipth- 
theria, typhoid fever and inflammation of the bowels. Bacter- 
iology, the great searchlight of medicine, as we have it today, 
was then practically unknown. Today we innoculate against ty- 
phoid fever and are immune. Today we operate for appendi- 
citis and inflammation of the bowels practically disappears from 
our list of diseases. Today we give antitoxin and the child's 
life is saved. We used to expect pus after a surgical operation 
and were disappointed if we did not get a so-called "healthy 
pus.'" Today the surgeon would be ashamed of it. 

Both before leaving the army and since, I have had people 
refer to our army officers and their families, with some degree 
of aspersion, saying they were too proud and would not speak 
to common folk ; that they were aristocrats, and much other non- 
sense. Possibly their isolated condition when I was in the serv- 
ice, gave some color to such accusations, but as far as I can 
estimate them, if they are an aristocracy, it is an aristocracy of 
merit ; of intellect ; of honor ; of integrity ; of loyalty ; of a strong 
sense of duty and many other worthy qualities that mark them 
as distinguished from any other kind of aristocracy we have in 



LITTLE PILLS 127 

this country, and I think particularly from our so-called aris- 
tocracy of wealth, so often associated with snobbery, and whose 
daughters so often present the nauseating spectacle, of trading 
themselves off to some degenerate and profligate descendant of 
inherited title and giving a million to boot. 

Just now, 1918, we hear a great deal about the army and 
the necessity of increasing its numbers, and much about its of- 
ficers, but do we ever hear anything about the officers' wives? 
They may not be of great importance now, but how was it forty 
or fifty years ago? At that time the great western half of our 
country was practically unsettled. There were few railroads, and 
no transcontinental line until 1869. Denver and Santa Fe were 
considered mere trading posts. There were only two overland 
stage lines and no settlements of consequence. The military posts 
were scattered over this vast region, separated from each other 
by many miles of distance and the ever present danger of attack 
from Indians. How about the wives of the army officers of that 
day, who shared with their husbands the dangers and hardships 
of frontier life ? I wish here to pay my tribute to one who shared 
with me all of the sorrows, and most of the hardships herein re- 
lated, and many others not considered of sufficient importance 
to mention. One who seldom complained; whose courage never 
faltered; whose abiding faith often prompted her to say, "It 
will all come out for the best in the end." 

Thus, we have traveled along life's pathway, with its joys 
and sorrows, until now we realize that we have crossed the di- 
vide, and are going down the western slope. The shadows are 
growing longer, the valley is not far distant, night is coming 
on, it will soon be taps and the lights will go out. 



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